On the stroke of midnight to mark the start of the Chinese Lunar New Year, the orbital module of the Shenzhou V spacecraft which completed China's first manned space flight three months ago, accomplished the fifth readjustment procedure to maintain its orbit.

Signals received in the Beijing Aerospace Command and Control Center indicated that the orbital module of Shenzhou V was operating smoothly.

The center closely monitored the flight of the module, which has been flying in orbit for three months.

On Oct. 15, 2003, Yang Liwei, a 38-year-old astronaut, entered space aboard the Shenzhou V spacecraft and the return module landed safely as planned in north China the next day, after orbiting Earth 14 times on the 21-hour mission.

(Xinhua News Agency January 22, 2004)