Ceilidh

Michael Zey
futurist3000@aol.com

By TED ANTHONY
.c The Associated Press

BEIJING (AP) - China is busy making ``full preparations'' for a manned spaceflight later this year and would consider a successful mission a milestone in the country's history, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.

Kong Quan, a ministry spokesman, insisted he had no concrete information about when the mission to send a Chinese astronaut - known as a ``taikonaut,'' after the Mandarin word for space - into orbit would begin. China has indicated it would send a man into space by the end of 2003.

But Kong said the country was proceeding apace.

``We hope we can realize that goal, sending a man into space, as soon as possible,'' he said, smiling, at a regular briefing. ``I can't provide any information. I wish I could.''

Kong added: ``We are trying to make full preparations to realize our goal.''

A successful mission would make China the third country - after the Soviet Union and the United States - to launch a manned spacecraft. China's communist leaders have invested enormous national prestige in the program, which has close ties to the secretive People's Liberation Army.

China's first four spaceship launches, Shenzhou I through Shenzhou IV, have been unmanned research vessels. Shenzhou V - the name means ``sacred vessel'' - would include a human being.

Last week, Science and Technology Minister Xu Guanhua told official Chinese media that preparations for the Shenzhou V launch are moving ahead ``extremely smoothly.''

Hong Kong newspapers with ties to China's leaders reported last week that the launch could come as early as next month following the Oct. 1 holiday commemorating the founding of the communist state - a time of high nationalist fervor in China.       


 
09/23/03 04:48 EDT
   

Copyright 2003 The Associated Press. The in

Photo: China, shown launching its fourth unmanned spaceship, "Shenzhou IV" successfully test-fired its first four-stage, solid-fuel rocket(AFP/XINHUA/File/Cha Chunming