China Space Launch Counts Down

China is making final preparations for the launch of its first manned space flight. A rocket carrying the Shenzhou V spacecraft could blast off from the Gobi desert launch pad as early as Wednesday morning, if the weather stays favourable.

There has been no official word on who will fly the craft, but Hong Kong media said the favourite was Yang Liwei, a 38-year-old from China's north east.

Chinese President Hu Jintao and other senior leaders are believed to have flown to the Jiuquan space base to watch the launch, which would see China become only the third nation to put a man in space.

But it appears that most other Chinese will not be able to watch the historic moment as it happens.

Chinese state television has scrapped plans to show the launch footage live, official media said. Instead there would be an unspecified delay before the footage was shown.

The Lanzhou Morning News, the launch site's local paper, said the decision followed the "suggestions of aerospace experts".

Correspondents said the government could be worried about the possibility of public disappointment and criticism if the launch were a failure.

But the move has provoked criticism from Chinese internet chatroom readers, the China Daily reported. One man complained he had already received permission to take the day off work.

If the launch is successful, China will join Russia and the United States as the only nations to send a man into space.

Yuhangyuan - Chinese for space navigator Used in official media
Taikonaut - derived from taikong, space Coined by Singapore-based website

China broke its official secrecy surrounding the launch on Friday when the official Xinhua news agency announced it would take place between 15 and 17 October.

Analysts have long speculated that 15 October would be a likely launch date, coming a day after a key Communist Party meeting in Beijing.

A pro-Beijing Hong Kong newspaper on Tuesday identified the leading candidate to be China's first spaceman as Yang Liwei, and the second and third candidates as Zhai Zhigang and Nie Haisheng.

Yang was brought up in the north-east "rustbelt" of Liaoning, and is the son of a teacher and an official from an agricultural official, a local party official told Reuters news agency.

The Shenzhou 5 is expected to orbit the Earth 14 times before landing about 21 hours after launch at a "pre-selected area", unnamed space officials have told Xinhua.

A report in the Jiefang Daily said the spacecraft was likely to be launched during the daytime and be carried by a Long March-II F rocket.

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Live broadcast of China's manned space flight cancelled

China has scrapped plans to show its first manned space launch live on television.

The decision was prompted by official fears of "political risks" if the flight failed.

Beijing says the flight will lift off from a remote desert base in the north west some time between Wednesday and Friday.

If it succeeds, state-run China Central Television plans to show recorded scenes afterwards.

A live broadcast was cancelled "because the leadership considered the political risks of a failure too great", the South China Morning Post newspaper said, citing unidentified "media sources".

The Lanzhou Morning News, published in Lanzhou, capital of the province where the launch base is located, said unspecified "suggestions of aerospace experts" prompted the decision.

The launch would make China only the third nation to achieve a manned space flight after the US and the former Soviet Union - a propaganda prize for which the government has invested 11 years of planning and untold resources.

The government has shown increased confidence, announcing the launch date after months of silence and splashing photos of the once-secret base across state newspapers. But officials have not said whether the launch would be shown on television or responded to requests for other information.

"There might be a live broadcast, or there might not," said the CCTV spokeswoman. "CCTV employees aren't allowed to answer that question."

China used to broadcast satellite launches live, but stopped in 1995 after a rocket blew up on national television less than two minutes after lift-off, killing six people on the ground.

Story filed: 07:48 Tuesday 14th October 2003

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