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AROUND THE WORLD 3: China’s Second Manned Space Mission

The second manned mission into space for China is planned for October 2005. Named Shenzhou IV, Chinese officials expect to send two astronauts into space where they will orbit the earth for four or five days.

Even though it’s been more than 40 years since the first man entered space, China is still new to space exploration. Their program is highly secretive. Names of astronauts in the training program, all of which are former flight pilots, will not be released until right before the mission. Currently, only the United States, Russia and China have domestic space programs.

The first manned space mission in China took place only two years ago, but the Space Department of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp. expects to have a space station by the year 2010. They are also planning to launch more satellites in the next few years.

In April of 1961, a Russian man was the first to enter space, followed by an American the following May. The first satellite was launched into space by Russia in 1957. In 2003, Yang Liwei, in the Shenzhou V, was the first Chinese man to ever enter space. He orbited the earth for over 21 hours.

China has been working on space exploration since 1968, but for political reasons their space program was stopped. One of China’s main goals in space exploration is lunar probing--researching the moon for scientific purposes. China also wishes to set up communication systems for their military in space.

--Written by Wendy Owen

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