中国登月资料（英文版）

Chinese Astronaut Marvels Over Space Trip
By Ted Anthony
Associated Press Writer
posted: 07:30 am ET
16 October 2003

BEIJING (AP) -- Fresh from a history-making trip into orbit, China's newly minted space hero proclaimed his amazement Thursday at "the greatest day of my life,'' while his leaders announced they would push forward in their exploration of the cosmos.

"I saw our planet. It's so beautiful,'' Lt. Col Yang Liwei, China's first astronaut, marveled to his family after making it safely home, gently touching down his Shenzhou 5 spacecraft on the grasslands of Inner Mongolia as a crisp dawn broke. The time of landing: 6:23 a.m.

The prestige at home and abroad brought by becoming the world's third spacefaring nation along with Russia and the United States is difficult to measure. China's communist leaders have poured their hopes and billions of dollars into it, hoping for just such a splashy success _ and the bragging rights that accompany it.

Within hours, officials announced that China's space dreams would continue with another Shenzhou mission, possibly within two years, and with plans to eventually send up a space station. They ruled out building an American-style space shuttle.

Yang approached his targeted landing spot from the west, sweeping over the rugged mountains of China's border with Central Asia, where an observation post spotted him descending. As Shenzhou's parachute unfurled, rescue trucks and helicopters hurried in preparation.

Within minutes, Yang was on the ground. He was said to be carrying weapons for protection against wild animals, but he didn't need them: Mission control said he landed 2.4 miles from his target and was quickly located, encircled, retrieved.

Filmed by state television, he clambered from the kettle-shaped capsule on his own power, grabbing the hatch and pulling himself out as he waved at rescuers and shook the sluggishness of space away.

``It is a splendid moment in the history of my motherland -- and also the greatest day of my life,'' he said after removing his helmet and emerging into the breaking day that brought China its prize.

Medical tests showed Yang was healthy, the government said. He was hustled to Beijing by helicopter and taken away in a minibus wrapped in a red ribbon as crowds gathered for celebration in a public plaza and newspapers published color-drenched extra editions that sold briskly.

"Great Leap Skyward,'' the state-controlled China Daily newspaper enthused.

People across the country basked in the accomplishment _ from a grinning Premier Wen Jiabao, who spoke with Yang after the "taikonaut'' landed, to ordinary Chinese on the Gobi Desert plateau where Shenzhou 5 was launched Wednesday morning. Taikonaut (TYE'-koh-nawt) is an English nickname based on the Chinese word for space, "taikong.''

"See how China is growing and developing? Now everybody is watching,'' said Zheng Tao, a machinery salesman from the western Chinese city of Yinchuan.

Yang, 38, a second-generation People's Liberation Army fighter pilot, became an instant celebrity, lauded by a state-controlled press that downplayed the fact that China's space program is linked to its military and thus cloaked in secrecy.

During his 21 1/2 hours in space and 14 orbits, Yang's canonization unfolded on national TV with each tiny action in his cramped craft _ holding up Chinese and United Nations flags, vowing to do a good job, talking to his 8-year-old ``dear son'' back home.

Li Jinai, head of China's manned space program, called Yang a ``space hero.'' And the program's chief engineer, Xie Mingbao, offered the entire nation's thanks.

"Today, the 16th of October, is a day the Chinese people will remember and treasure. For this is the first time that we achieved manned spaceflight,'' Xie said.

International congratulations also poured in. NASA, whose space shuttle Columbia was lost in February, called it ``an important achievement in the history of human exploration.''

Aboard the International Space Station, American astronaut Edward Lu, whose parents were born in China, spoke in Chinese as he addressed these wishes to Yang: "Welcome to space.''

His colleague, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko, told U.S. Mission Control in Houston: ``I am glad to have somebody else in space instead of me and Ed. Also, I know it was great work by thousands and thousands of people from China.''

The Shenzhou, or ``Sacred Vessel,'' is based on the three-seat Russian Soyuz capsule, though with extensive modifications. Shenzhou 5 had 52 engines for precise calibrations, the government said, and traveled 370,000 miles.

Yang, an astronaut since 1998, was picked for the flight from three finalists. They trained for years, and the field was narrowed from 14 in recent weeks. His trip came after four test flights, beginning in 1999, of unmanned Shenzhou capsules.

China has had a rocketry program since the 1950s. It launched a manned space program in the 1970s amid the political upheaval of Mao Zedong's 1966-76 Cultural Revolution but later abandoned it. The program was relaunched in 1992 under the code name Project 921.

The budget for the manned space program has long been secret, but Xie said Thursday -- for the first time publicly -- that it has cost $2.18 billion so far -- a major commitment for China, where the average person makes $700 a year.

Yang's successful flight came four decades after the former Soviet Union and the United States pioneered manned spaceflight. Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin orbited the Earth in April 1961. Less than one month later, the United States launched Alan B. Shepard Jr.

As for Yang, he didn't seem the worse for wear. On the
http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/heroes_welcome_031016.html

Chang'e (Chinese: 嫦娥工程; pinyin: Cháng'é Gōngchéng) is a program of unmanned and manned missions to the Moon by China announced in 2003, named for the Chinese moon goddess Chang'e. The first spacecraft, Chang'e 1 (嫦娥一号; Cháng'é Yīhào), a lunar orbiter is currently scheduled to be launched between April 17 and April 19, 2007, with further launches in 2008 or 2009 according to academician and Chief Designer of Chinese rockets Long Lehao. The second phase should include at least two lunar rovers. The full program consists of lunar orbiters, lunar rovers and a soil return spacecraft, as well as a Deep Space Tracking Network, with radio antennas of 50m in Beijing, 40m in Kunming, Shanghai and Ürümqi, forming a 3000 Km VLBI antenna. The fourth phase will be a manned mission, as suggested by the official Chinese Lunar Exploration Program (Chinese: 中国探月; pinyin: Zhōngguó Tànyuè) insignia, a Chinese calligraphy of the word 月 (pinyin: yuè) meaning "Moon" with a crescent Moon shape, that clearly shows two footprints at the center.

Ouyang Ziyuan, one of the most prominent Chinese experts in geological research on underground nuclear testing and extraterrestrial materials, was naturally the first to advocate not only the exploitation of the known huge lunar reserves of metals such as iron, but also the mining of lunar helium-3 as an ideal fuel for nuclear fusion power plants. He is now in charge of the Chang'e program. He is known to be one of the strongest supporters of the Chinese manned lunar exploration program.

Objectives
The first phase of the program has four major goals. They are as follows:

Drawing "pictures" of the moon and obtaining three-dimensional images of the lunar surface. Dividing the basic landforms and structures of the lunar surface and initially making outline graphs of lunar geology and structures, so as to provide a reference and basis for later soft landings. The orbit of the Chang'e 1 around the moon will not only completely cover the entire moon, but also include parts of areas in the north and south poles, which have never been covered.
Probing useful elements on the moon surface and analyzing the elements and materials, primarily making maps of the distribution of various elements on the moon's surface. China hopes to expand the number of the useful elements to 14, compared with the five kinds previously probed by the United States, and will conduct an overall prospect evaluation on some useful resources on the moon's surface.
Probing the features of lunar soil and evaluating its depth, as well as the amount of helium-3 resources.
Probing the space environment between 40,000 km and 400,000 km from the earth, recording data on the primitive solar wind and studying the impact of solar activity on the earth and the moon.
The first three of the four objectives are aimed at the moon itself, while the last one is focused on the process of sending the Chang'e probe to the moon, which means exploring the physical environment between the Earth and the moon.

In addition, the lunar probe engineering system, composed of five major systems - the satellite system, the launch vehicle system, the launch site system, the monitoring and control system and the ground application system - will accomplish the following five goals:

Researching, developing and launching China's first lunar probe satellite
Initially mastering the basic probe technology of satellites in orbit
Conducting first lunar scientific exploration
Initially forming a lunar probe space engineering system
Accumulating experience for the later phases of the lunar probe project