COSPAR ID | 2003-045A |
---|---|
SATCAT № | 28043 |
Mission duration | 21 hours, 22 minutes, 45 seconds |
Orbits completed | 14 |
Spacecraft properties | |
Spacecraft type | Shenzhou |
Launch mass | 7,790 kilograms (17,170 lb) |
Crew | |
Crew size | 1 |
Members | Yang Liwei |
Start of mission | |
Launch date | 15 October 2003, 01:00:03 | UTC
Rocket | Chang Zheng 2F |
Launch site | Jiuquan LA-4/SLS-1 |
End of mission | |
Landing date | 15 October 2003, 22:22:48 | UTC
Orbital parameters | |
Reference system | Geocentric |
Regime | Low Earth |
Perigee | 332 kilometers (206 mi) |
Apogee | 336 kilometers (209 mi) |
Inclination | 42.4 degrees |
Period | 91.2 minutes |
Shenzhou missions
|
Shenzhou 5 (simplified Chinese: 神舟五号; traditional Chinese: 神舟五號; pinyin: shénzhōu wǔ hào) — was the first human spaceflight mission of the Chinese space program, launched on 15 October 2003. The Shenzhou spacecraft was launched on a Long March 2F launch vehicle. There had been four previous flights of unmanned Shenzhou missions since 1999. China became the third country in the world to have independent human spaceflight capability after the Soviet Union (later, Russia) and the United States.
The launch was widely heralded in the official Chinese state media with newspapers devoting far more space to the launch than any recent event. While the Chinese media portrayed the launch as a triumph for Chinese science and technology and a milestone for Chinese nationalism, it has also been pointed out in both Chinese and Western media that Yang Liwei showed the flag of the United Nations in addition to the flag of the People's Republic of China. The state media also reported that crop seeds from Taiwan were brought aboard the spacecraft.
General Secretary and President Hu Jintao, in an official celebration at the Great Hall of the People, hailed China's success in launching its first manned spacecraft into orbit, describing it as "an honor for our great motherland, an indicator for the initial victory of the country's first manned space flight and for an historic step taken by the Chinese people in their endeavor to surmount the peak of the world's science and technology."