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 The BBC's Adam Brookes"It can carry a crew of astronauts"  real 28k The BBC's Adam Brookes"The launch comes amid a spate of national celebrations"  real 28k |
China joins space club
 The capsule parachuted down in Inner Mongolia |
China has successfully completed a test of its first experimental spacecraft.
 Another milestone in China's astronautical history  |
| China's state news agency |
The unmanned spacecraft was launched with a new version of the Long March rocket from Jinquan satellite launch centre in the north-western province of Gansu at 0630 on Saturday (2230 GMT on Friday).
The capsule "touched down" in the northern province of Inner Mongolia, the agency said.
Television showed only simulation pictures of the module descending by parachute before landing.
 Lift-off for 'divine ship' |
In brief video footage showing the launch and the capsule that returned to Earth, the spacecraft appeared to resemble the Apollo series of capsules launched by Nasa in the US in the late 1960s.
China decades behind
"The successful launching and retrieval of the spaceship marks the country's new major breakthrough in manned space flight technology," according to the Chinese news agency.
Our correspondent in Beijing, Adam Brookes, reports that China already has a successful commercial satellite launch industry and a considerable missile capacity.
In manned space flight, however, it still remains decades behind the United States and Russia.
However, the Chinese Communist Party appears to view putting an astronaut into space as an important prestige project.
China says that the rockets and the craft in this weekend's launch were designed and manufactured by Chinese scientists.
Analysts in the space business say that China looks to Russia for extensive help in its space programme.
The launch makes China the third country to have a manned space programme, after the United States and Russia.
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 | 20 Oct 99 | Sci/Tech |
| Intriguing details of Chinese space plans |
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| 10 Jun 99 | Sci/Tech |
| China's secret manned spacecraft revealed |
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| 26 Feb 99 | Sci/Tech |
| Chinese manned spaceflight probable |
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| 13 May 99 | Sci/Tech |
| China to test 'space shuttle' in October |
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