China’s milestone making Shenzhou 5 flight, piloted by Yang Liwei, a lieutenant colonel of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), is sparking a wide array of opinions as to the mission’s true significance. The landmark space voyage is expected to be China’s opening volley in what policy analysts anticipate will be an ever-expanding agenda of human space exploits. China’s Shenzhou 5 trek marked the fifth flight of the craft in four years time, and the first to carry a pilot. But to what degree does China’s historic sojourn into space signal military intentions, a hungering for space cooperation, or just a public morale boost fueled by nationalistic get-up-and-go?