Shenzhou 5
On 15 October 2003, Shenzhou 5 made Yang Liwei the first Chinese national to reach orbit, making China the third country to independently launch a human into space.
◉ REÁLNÉ FOTO · China News Service (via Wikimedia Commons)Contents
living encyclopedia entryOn 15 October 2003, Shenzhou 5 carried Yang Liwei into orbit, making him the first Chinese citizen in space and China the third nation — after the Soviet Union and the United States — to independently launch a human into orbit. The spacecraft lifted off aboard a Long March 2F rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert.
Shenzhou 5 completed 14 orbits of Earth over roughly 21 hours before Yang landed by parachute in the grasslands of Inner Mongolia. The mission was the culmination of Project 921, China's crewed spaceflight program launched in 1992, and was preceded by four uncrewed test flights of the Shenzhou spacecraft.
- Shenzhou 5 made China the third country to independently send a human into orbit, after the Soviet Union (1961) and the United States (1962).
- The sole crew member, Yang Liwei, was a fighter pilot in the People's Liberation Army Air Force before becoming an astronaut.
- The Shenzhou spacecraft's design was influenced by the Soviet/Russian Soyuz but is larger; its orbital module can continue operating independently in orbit after separating from the return capsule.
- Yang Liwei's flight made him a national hero in China and led to the country's first spacewalk five years later, during the Shenzhou 7 mission.
Shenzhou 5 in numbers
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China formally approves its human spaceflight program.
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FULL TIMELINE →Yang Liwei became the first Chinese astronaut in space aboard Shenzhou 5 — making China the third country with an independent human spaceflight capability.
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