China Launches Its First Unmanned Test Spacecraft

China today completed its first unmanned test of a spacecraft meant to carry astronauts, a breakthrough that could mean a manned mission is just months away.

China is striving to become the third country, after the United States and the former Soviet Union, to send human beings into outer space. Its space program is a symbol of national strength in a mostly rural land where farmers make an average of $260 a year.

The Chinese-made spacecraft Shenzhou was launched early Saturday at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the northern province of Gansu. The craft detached itself from its launching vehicle and entered orbit 10 minutes after takeoff, guided by China’s newly built space control network, the state-run New China News Agency reported.

The craft orbited the Earth 14 times during its 21-hour period in space. It touched down as planned in Inner Mongolia in northern China at 3:41 this morning, the news agency and national newspapers reported.

The news agency said more unmanned flights were expected before China sends up a craft carrying astronauts--or “taikonauts” as they are known here, from the Chinese word for space. The agency called the mission a “breakthrough in manned spaceflight technology” for China.

The Chinese-made craft was a standard spacecraft similar to what the Americans and Russians built in the 1960s, said James Oberg, a 22-year veteran of the U.S. space shuttle program now working as an independent consultant. He said the craft would be adequate for a wide range of manned missions lasting as long as several weeks.

Oberg said a Chinese manned flight with two or possibly three people is likely in 2000.