2 сент 2003 г. - China launches its first manned space mission

Описание:

On 15th October 2003, China successfully placed its manned "Shenzhou 5" spacecraft in orbit. This followed four previous missions of which three were unmanned and one carried animals. Shenzhou 5 carried a single astronaut – Yang Liwei. It was launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert, using a Long March 2F rocket booster.

Shenzhou 5 was made up of three components: a service module, orbital module and reentry module. The orbital module spent 21 hours above the Earth, reaching a maximum height of 336 km (209 mi). It contained various experimental equipment and was left in space, along with the service module. The reentry component returned to Earth after orbiting the planet 14 times.

With this mission, China became only the third country in the world to have independently put humans in space. Following this success, two more manned missions were launched, Shenzhou 6 in 2005 and Shenzhou 7 in 2008. However, China still received some criticism for its expensive space program, with some saying the money could have been better spent elsewhere.