Reports say blast-off likely Oct. 15
China will launch its first ever manned space mission Oct. 15, RFA's Mandarinand Cantonese services report. The mission will make a single orbit around the earth in a 90-minute flight.
"We have been told our live broadcast of the launch will be on the 15th. Butwe do not know the exact time of the launch on the day," a China CentralTelevision news center official said.
Oct. 15 was already widely tipped as the big day, and state-run PhoenixTV, broadcast from Hong Kong, also quoted reliable sources as confirmingthis was the plan.
"Relevant sources said that upon close examination of the weather and otherimportant elements, the preliminary launch date of the Shenzhou V has beenset for Oct. 15," Phoenix said.
One media report indicated that a single "taikonaut," a term based on theChinese word for space, would fly. Another suggested as many as three mighttake part. In Indonesia, at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations(ASEAN) leaders' summit, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said the Shenzhou Vcraft would take off with a human crew "soon, very soon."
The CCTV official said the craft would take off from a launch pad in InnerMongolia with the Jiuquan Space Launch Center in northwestern Gansu provincecoordinating the historic event.
The center has three launch pads in the vicinity, and Shenzhou V will leavefrom the one some 200 kms (124 miles) north in Inner Mongolia, CCTVsaid. The facility was built in the 1960s as China's first ballistic missileand satellite launch center and has been used extensively in China'ssatellite and space program.
China appears capable of broadcasting the event live, according to Huang Dong, a military analyst based in Macao�noting that both Washington and Moscow aired live broadcasts of national leaders speaking with astronauts during their respective first-ever manned space flights.
"I think China has the technology to do it," Huang told RFA�s Mandarin service. "A live broadcast showing the images of the inside of the capsule will have great significance whether the launch is a success or failure."
When Russian Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space in 1961, hisflight lasted 108 minutes. Days later American Alan Shepard spent just 15minutes on a suborbital flight.
Xie Guangxuan, an engineer who headed the unmanned Shenzhou III mission, nowat the China Academy of Sciences, was quoted as saying the Shenzhou V flightwould last around 90 minutes.
"As far as I know concerning the testing and checkups, all preparations for the launch of the Shenzhou at present are going smoothly," said Xie.
Media reports said just one astronaut will make the trip, selected from ateam of 14. Four unmanned Shenzhou capsules have so far been been launchedsince 1999.
Sending people into space, and eventually to the Moon, is part of anintegrated Chinese space program, experts say. Beijing's space scheduleallows for the increasing use of satellites for weather watching, resource monitoring, and communications purposes.
But some U.S. observers say that a military space strategy is also being put in place, including quick access to orbit, lofting anti-satellites and theuse of powerful ground-based lasers to blind spacecraft. They say the People'sLiberation Army is trying to ensure it can deny use of the military highground of space by a potential enemy.#####