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As innovation has become the latest catchphrase of official rhetoric, Shenzhou 6, China's first ever multi-astronaut and multi-day space mission, has become a proud symbol of technological development at home. But if we want to allow the great scientific and technological progress achieved in the course of the space project to benefit technical innovation in China overall, much more has to be done. The most urgent task is involving more enterprises in the space program. Most space technology has been developed by space enterprises, such as China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation and China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation, with...

China launched its second manned space mission, sending two astronauts into orbit as it opened a new chapter in its ambitious drive to become a global space power. Shenzhou VI, based on Soviet Soyuz technology, lifted off on a Long March 2F carrier rocket from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center at 9 am (0100 GMT) for a five-day mission carrying air force pilots Fei Junlong and Nie Haisheng. It entered a fixed orbit 21 minutes later. Having two crew on board is a departure from October 2003, when Yang Liwei spent 21 hours on a solo odyssey -- a mission that...

BEIJING (AFX) - China will launch its second manned space mission from a remote desert region on Wednesday, an official involved in the launch told Agence France-Presse. "It is Oct 12 at 9:00 am," said an official from the technical department of the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. The official declined to be named. Shenzhou VI will carry two astronauts and orbit the earth for five days. The flight comes almost exactly two years after the successful Oct 15, 2003 launch of astronaut Yang Liwei into space, making China only the third nation after the US and the former Soviet...

China's second manned space mission - called Shenzhou VI - will launch in early October, a state newspaper has reported. This time, authorities will send two astronauts into space and they will orbit the Earth for five or six days. "The manned spacecraft Shenzhou VI will ... preferably be launched in early October," Sun Weigang, director of the Space Department of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp, told the China Daily. China's first manned space flight two years ago made it the third country able to launch a human into space on its own, along with Russia and the...

Last Updated: Friday, 15 April, 2005, 10:24 GMT 11:24 UK   China rocket man held for bribery   Li Jianzhong was influential in the 2003 Shenzhou V mission Li Jianzhong, a key figure in China's successful space programme, has been arrested on bribery charges, state news agency Xinhua has reported.Mr Li, former head of China's launch vehicle maker CALT, is alleged to have taken more than $200,000 in bribes and to have embezzled nearly $19m. CALT builds China's Long March rockets, one of which powered the manned Shenzhou V craft into space in 2003. Investigations into Mr Li started...