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By Jonathan Ansfield

PHOTO: The Shenzhou 3 Dashboard up on the big screen at the Aerospace Command and Control Center in Beijing

BEIJING, March 26 (Reuters) - They sit in the cockpit, their heartbeats are tracked, they even become weightless in outer space. The only thing they can't do is fly.

China rocketed dummy astronauts into orbit aboard its third unmanned "Shenzhou" spacecraft on Monday night, laying a new foundation for plans to send the country's first person into space in "the near future," the official People's Daily said on Tuesday.


President Jiang Zemin hailed Shenzhou III's successful launch as a "new milestone" for China, whose last unmanned flight -- the Shenzhou II -- put a monkey, a dog, a rabbit and snails into orbit in January 2001, it said.

"The spacecraft's technical conditions are completely consistent with that of a manned flight," the Communist Party mouthpiece newspaper said.

Shenzhou III would remain in orbit for "a number of days," Xinhua news agency said. Shenzhou II orbited the earth 108 times in six days.

State television showed China's "Long March II F" rocket pushing the craft into the stratosphere as a glowing Jiang and other top Communist Party brass looked on at Jiuquan launch centre in the northwestern province of Gansu.

Jiang said the launch of the craft was "ample reflection of the socialist system's superiority in amassing the strength to carry out great things."

China, which state media has said plans manned space flights by 2005, would join the United States and former Soviet Union as the only countries to put a person into orbit.

The Soviet Union was the first in the race, putting Yuri Gagarin into space in 1961.

Monday's launch, 10 years in the making, was "ample proof the Chinese people are ambitious and able to stand tall among the peoples of the world," said Jiang.

HEARTBEAT, PULSE

Ten minutes after take-off, the Shenzhou III module separated from the launch rocket and -- with a technician's click of a computer mouse from mission control in Beijing -- the craft entered its pre-appointed orbit, the official China Daily said.

The People's Daily said it was the Chinese space programme's 24th consecutive successful launch since 1996, when an early generation Long March rocket carrying a commercial satellite exploded shortly after take-off in Sichuan province, killing six.

Shenzhou III's simulated astronauts were equipped with a system to test the human body's responses to conditions in outer space, it said.

Technicians on the ground could control the dummy to monitor a real astronaut's would-be heartbeat, pulse, breathing, nutritional needs -- and even waste disposal -- while in orbit, the paper said.

Experiments in areas such as life sciences and space physics were also planned, reports said.

China announced its four-step Shenzhou manned spaceflight plan in 1999 with the aim of establishing a space station served by shuttle-style vehicles. The first "Shenzhou" spacecraft was launched in November 1999 and landed in the Inner Mongolia region the following day.

Beijing, where leaders are eager for the pride and prestige that would come from a manned space flight, has said it also hopes to land a man on the moon.

In addition, China has launched satellites for U.S. and Brazilian operators and is vying for a bigger slice of the lucrative market for launching commercial satellites.

01:50 03-26-02

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The Shenzhou 3 Dashboard up on the big screen at the Aerospace Command and Control Center in Beijing