Beijing's first man in space 'this year'

China announced yesterday its intention to launch its first manned spacecraft later this year. While its latest unmanned test capsule Shenzhou (Divine Vessel) IV, launched three days earlier, was still circling the globe, officials confirmed that the next flight would carry at least one astronaut.

The flight would happen "in the second half of 2003", the director of the Shanghai aerospace bureau, Yuan Jie, said.

This week's launch had laid "a solid foundation" for the manned mission, he said. The Shenzhou IV was designed to test life-support and other essential systems for future astronauts.

It is a mark of Chinese self-assurance that predictions about the next flight are being made before the Shenzhou IV has returned safely to earth. The craft is expected to remain in orbit until the weekend.

Commentators are pulling out the stops to portray the flight of the first Chinese astronaut as a giant leap for mankind. "The cohorts of space exploration will benefit from the strong and richly creative force of the Chinese people," the official New China website said.

Those who will be selected for the first flight are being compared in fanciful media stories to Chang O, the woman who in an ancient creation myth flew to the heavens and became the Moon goddess.

The prospective astronauts are all experienced air force pilots and have been trained for three to five years. The qualifications for selection include excellent health, mental stability, satisfactory height and weight, and "a high political quality".

Chinese officials have admitted that the Shenzhou is based on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft, but insist it is bigger and better. Plans to establish permanent moon and space stations have been frequently mentioned, but it is not clear whether these are firm objectives.

China launched its first satellite into space in 1970, but leaders were divided for many years about whether to go all out for manned flight.

Chou Enlai is said to have been behind the decision to concentrate on rocket technology instead, but the desire to rival the superpowers in space did not die.

The manned space project finally began 11 years ago in January 1992, after a decade of rapid economic growth, and the programme still reflects the zeal of earlier decades.