World News 15-10-2003 China Manned Spaceflight Blackout who: Astronaut Yang Liwei what: Becomes first Chinese man in space where: Gobi desert when: Yesterday snippet: China`s `divine vessel` blasted into orbit and history early this morning, says The Sun, "as the communist nation became the third country to send a man into space." Four decades after the Soviet Union and the United States started their manned space missions, 38-year-old fighter pilot Yang Liwei "became the Chinese equivalent of Yuri Gagarin, the pioneer of the manned Russian space programme who became the first man in space in 1961." Shenzou 5 blasted off at 1am GMT and will return to Earth after a flight of about 22 hours, adds BBC News Online. Chinese President Hu Jintao, who watched the launch, called it "the glory of our great motherland", notes The Telegraph. He said: "The party and the people will never forget those who have set up the outstanding merit in the space industry for the motherland, the people and the nation." But it was a tentative grasp at glory, suggests the Guardian which concentrates on the fact that "a nervous government had pulled the plug on a live television broadcast" of the lift-off. "Such was the fear of a public backlash if the hugely expensive project went wrong that the China national space administration did not even reveal the number and identities of the first yuhangyuan (space voyagers) until after the successful launch," observes the Guardian`s Jonathan Watts. "Having spent billions of dollars on a space mission with few concrete benefits, they do not want to justify their decision until it is proven a national triumph that will appeal even to the millions who live on less than a dollar a day." [... more]

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