China's first manned spacecraft, the Shenzhou V, blasted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the northwestern province of Gansu at 9 am this morning. The spacecraft, atop a Long March II F rocket, was piloted by Yang Liwei, 38, a lieutenant colonel of the People's Liberation Army (PLA). Yang, a member of the PLA's Astronauts Team, was trained at home.

The Shenzhou mission, if successful, will make China the third nation to send a man into outer space, following the former Soviet Union and the United States.

(Xinhua News Agency October 15, 2003)