Shenzhou Five (神舟五号) was a number one manned space mission launched by the People's Republic of China (PRC) on October 15, 2003. A Shenzhou spacecraft was launched on a Long March 2F rocket booster. There got been foursome last flights of uncrewed Shenzhou missions since 1999.

Crew
Yáng Lìwěi

Mission parameters
Mass: 7,790 kg Perigee: 332 km Apogee: 336 km Inclination: 42.4° Time: 91.Two minutes NSSDC ID: 2003-045A

Mission highlights

Shenzhou Five was launched at 09:00 (UTC +8) from either Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, a launch base in the Gobi Desert in Gansu Province, entering orbit 343 kilometer above Globe at 09:10 (UTC +8) by owning astronaut Yáng Lìwěi (杨利伟), the 38 season-old Light colonel in the People's Liberation Army and former fighter pilot. a launch processed a PRC a third united states to independently launch a human into space, when the Soviet Union and the United States. the launch of the Shenzhou is the symptom of a manned space program which began around 1992.

Neither a launch nor a reentry was televised survive, & these are widely believed that it was due to government fears that a disaster may produce an embarrassment, however the period of two launch & reentry launch got been widely announced advance, & news appeared in Chinese Central Television within minutes after each cases. This laid a level of secrecy associated using a Shenzhou Five mission between U.s. & Soviet practices. Inside counterpoint to Western practice, foreign journalists were non admitted & survive television was non broadcast; around direct contrast to Soviet practice, a fact that a launch was astir to occur was proclaimed times inside advance & pic & streaming videos from either the mission were available in minutes of launch & reentry.

It manufactured Xiv orbits & landed Xxi hours when launch. A Chinese manned ballistic capsule re-entered Globe's atmosphere at 06:04 (UTC +8) in 16 October 2003 (22:04 UTC 15 Oct 2003), its parachute opening ordinarily & a spaceman saying he was feeling mulct. A landing happened at 06:28 (UTC +8), only Quadruplet.Octonary kilometers from a plotted landing places around Inner Mongolia, according to the food and drug administration. A orbital module of the ballistic capsule stayed around orbit; it continued by owning machine-driven experiments until March 16, 2004, and decayed in Might 30 [http://satobs.org/seesat/May-2004/0381.html].

Premier Wen Jiabao congratulated the united states's number 1 individual around space fallowing his safe link to to Globe. Yáng emerged from either a capsule astir Quarter-hour late & waved to members of the recovery team.

A control center inside Beijing late declared China's 1st manned ballistic capsule mission to become successful fallowing Yáng Lìwěi emerged from either his capsule.

Politics
A launch was widely heralded in the official Chinese state media by having newspapers devoting far extra space to the launch than any recent event. When the Chinese media portrayed a launch as a triumph for Chinese science & technology & a milestone for Chinese nationalism, it has also been pointed call at two Chinese & American media that a Yang Liwei showed a flag of the United Nations in addition to the flag of the People's Republic of China.

President Hu Jintao, who get on-places at a Jiuquan Launch Center, hailed China's profits within launching its foremost manned ballistic capsule into orbit, describing it as "an honor for our great motherland, an indicator for the initial victory of the country's first manned space flight and for an historic step taken by the Chinese people in their endeavor to surmount the peak of the world's science and technology."

Hu added, "the Party and the people will never forget those who have set up this outstanding merit in the space industry for the motherland, the people and the nation." He likewise expressed congratulations & respect to specialists & population world health organization use at times contributed to China's space missiin development on behalf of the CPC Central Committee, the State Council and the Central Military Commission (CMC) and its chair Jiang Zemin.

When a elder statesman Jiang, 77, was lauded by Hu, a bit of analysts keep around noted that a out person chief & state president has maintained a like moo profile when you took the flight, prompting further speculation that Jiang's influence in Chinese politics experienced been waning at a period. Although Hu Jintao mentioned Jiang's title within congratulating a crew, it was considered important that Jiang himself did non personally congratulate anyone taking part using a space vehicle. Additionally, throughout a entire flight there were there are no pictures associating Jiang by owning Shenzhou Five, patch pictures & text linking Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao with the launch estimated conspicuously in the Chinese journalism. This speculation was enhanced per fact that the launch occurred immediately when a plenary session of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China at which Jiang had reportedly been lobbying for inclusion of his theory of Three Represents and property rights guarantees in a Chinese Constitution, both platforms existence super controversial inside the Person.

International reaction
- Minster for Science and Information Abdul Moyeen Khan said the launch showed that possibly for poorer countries, investment inside science & technology would pay off. - President Paul Biya called the launch a great event for the totally globe. - President Pedro Pires sent congratulations on China's accomplishment, & wished China would prosper farther. - Minister for Science Research Claudie Haigneré, and besides a foremost European woman around space, said "the space age has entered a new historic period". - Prime Minister Koizumi Junichiro called the launch the "a great feat". - Lord Sainsbury said on behalf of Prime Minister Tony Blair, that he congratulated the PRC for this successful launch & he was impressed per dedication & skill of a lot people included. - Deputy Prime Minister Dmitri Tabachnik said it was "a great victory" on the a portion of the Chinese science & technology. - The State Department spokesman said that it was an historic achievement & that a United States "applaud China's success in becoming only the third country to launch people into space".