China’s first manned spacecraft, the Shenzhou-5, blasts off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China’s Gansu Province at 9 a.m. Wednesday.
October 15th, 2003
China’s first spaceman Yang Liwei People's Daily
The astronaut Yang Liwei, from Liaoning Province and aged 38, is a member of the Astronaut Team of PLA. As a Chinese astronaut of the first generation, he was an excellent fighter pilot of PLA air force with the flight experience of 1350 hours. In 1998, he was selected as an astronaut. After five years’ hard training and study, he stood out excellent in all of his studies. Before the launch, the command center of the manned space flight made the decision that Yang was to carry out the first manned flight. According to the plan, Yang would take the spacecraft to fly around the earth for 14 times and then to land in the middle of the Inner Mongolia.
August 28th, 2003
Pre-researches Kicked off for Future Mars Exploration People's Daily
According to the hot news out from National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Mars pre-study project entitled the “comparison study on the ion environment in the magnetic field of the Mars and that on the Earth” has been approved and started. Many Chinese scientists have already been carrying out the relevant pre-study in preliminary theory as an initial preparation for China’s Mars exploration project.
September 10th, 2002
NASA Scientist Brings Mars Stories to China People's Daily
When a five-year-old boy asked Dr.Geoffrey Landis if he could be his traveling companion, he picked the right man. “I want to go to Mars with you,” the Chinese boy said to Dr. Landis of the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), during his lecture on Mars and Space Exploration in Beijing. The program manager with NASA arrived in China on Sept. 6 to give lectures in Beijing and Chengdu at the invitation of Science Fiction World, a Chinese science fiction journal. Dr. Landis told his audience that he believed people could realize the dream of traveling to Mars in no more than 20 years, though there are still no plans for a manned Mars mission.
April 23rd, 2002
China Develops First Mars Probe People's Daily
Mars Explorer– the first Mars probe developed by China on its own, is now going through adjustment, which will make its debut with the public at the China Sci-Tech Week to be held in May, as learned from Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics. “Mars Explorer” is made after “Mars Ranger” developed by the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration, said Dr Ding Shuiting, dean of vehicle engineering department of the said university who is in charge of the project. With an investment of only RMB 200,000 yuan, the probe is no more than a model with many mechanical details simplified, said Ding. But it is technologically qualified, as capable as US-made probe and independently developed by China.