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China Launches Unmanned Space Test Flight
Beijing - Mar 25, 2002 China's fledgling manned space program launched an unmanned test flight late Monday at 10.15pm local time (1415 GMT), the third in a series of test flights that are expected to result in China's first manned space voyage next year. Shenzhou was launched a top the Long March 2F rocket from the Jiuquan Space Launch Center in northwest Gansu province. China's space program, which aims to make the country the third nation to put a human into space after the United States and the former Soviet Union, is notoriously secretive and rarely publicizes launches in advance. Earlier this month Chinese state press said the third flight was imminent, while acknowledging that an astronaut would not be put into space until next year at the earliest. The third Shenzhou test flight had been delayed due to problems with "product quality", leading space administrator Hu Shixiang told the China News Service at the time. The first unmanned test flight of the Shenzhou program was in November 1999, when the Shenzhou I orbited the earth 14 times in a 21-hour mission aimed mainly at testing launch and re-entry capabilities.
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