Space ship launched
China enters new era in space history
From Max Lee ( The Daily Mail) and Javed Akhtar ( APP)

BEIJING—China’s piecemeal but ambitious space program took another giant step today, as two Chinese taikonauts blasted into orbit on a state-of the-art Long March rocket on the country’s second manned space mission ever.
China’s second manned spacecraft Shenzhou VI blasts off into the sky Wednesday morning October 12, 2005.
The Shenzhou VI manned spacecraft blasted off with a loud launch noise for a multi-day orbital stay from its satellite launch center in Jiuquan in northwest China.
China’s state-owned Central Television Station is carrying out a live coverage of the spacecraft flight, with images of the two taikonauts clearly shown to tens of millions of Chinese viewers.
Shenzhou VI was lifted into the space by a Long March carrier rocket at 9:00 am Beijing Time. It entered its orbit 21 minutes later.
Fei Junlong, 40, and Nie Haisheng, 41, will make a great deal of experiments during their space journey.
“I feel good,” Fei said minutes after blast-off.
“We have the confidence and ability to fulfil this glorious task. Our only wish is to make the mission a complete success,” Fei said before boarding the craft. “Life in space is full of mysteries,” Nie added.
Fei Junlong and Nie Haisheng lie in the Shenzhou VI capsule before the launch Wednesday October 12, 2005. China plans to launch its second manned space mission Wednesday morning.
“There is nothing to worry about,” the two was quoted as saying before the launch as a light snow fell. “We will accomplish the mission resolutely. See you in Beijing”.
Premier Wen Jiabao hailed the successful launch, reiterating China’s policy for peaceful use of space.
Wen said that China develops space technology purely for peaceful purposes and China is willing to cooperate with other nations in the development of space science and technology.
The launch came just a day after the ruling Chinese Communist Party wrapped up a key meeting to map out the development of the world’s seventh-largest economy for the next five years.
In the Chinese capital, President Hu Jintao and Vice President Zeng Qinghong watched the lift-off at the Beijing Aerospace Command and Control Center.
China’s first man in space was Colonel Yang Liwei, who orbited Earth 14 times in the Shenzhen V craft on October 15, 2003.
China, the third nation to put a man into orbit, insisted ahead of the launch that its aspirations in space were strictly peaceful and that it opposes deploying weapons there. Space officials say they hope to land an unmanned probe on the moon by 2010 and launch a space station.
“We do not wish to see any form of weapons in outer space, so we reaffirm that our space flight program is an important element of mankind’s peaceful utilization of outer space,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan said.
However, Washington sees China’s space ambitions as an emerging security concern, with the potential for the Asian giant to boost its military capabilities and eventually challenge US dominance in space.
“US concern about China’s space capabilities are first that China might eventually develop the ability to attack US satellites, because the US military is heavily dependent on them,” said Phillip Saunders of the Pentagon-linked Institute for National Strategic Studies.
“Second, as China space capabilities improve, it will have the ability also to improve its other military options,” Saunders told newsmen.
China’s Premier Wen Jiabao announced the success of the blastoff of the country’s second manned spacecraft, Shenzhou VI, about 40 minutes after the launch.
Wen witnessed the whole launching at Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. China’s President Hu Jintao watched the whole process in a Beijing space mission control center, from which scientists will be sending controlling commands to the spaceship during the 119-hour mission.
A Long March IIF rocket carrying the spaceship lifted off at 9am from the center in northwest China’s Gansu Province.
Two minutes later, the rocket cast the escape tower, an 8-meter-long device on the top of the rocket, which helps astronaut escape from the launching pad during the period from 30 minutes before takeoff to 2 minutes after takeoff.
The spaceship was detached from the rocket about 10 minutes after the blastoff, marking the basic success of the launch.
Colonel Fei Junlong and Colonel Nie Haisheng will pilot the spaceship to carry out a series of scientific research tasks in the 119-hour flight.
About 9:13am the launch center received Fei’s voice. “The solar panel has been opened, and we feel good,” he said.
Shenzhou VI, which will return to the earth in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in five days, carries several politically and culturally significant objects inboard, including a Shanghai World Expo flag. The astronauts will be able to enjoy more than 50 varieties of food during their flight.
The flight this week, more sophisticated than the 2003 mission, is China’s first program to send more than one astronaut into space for more than one day.
The country successfully launched its first manned space vehicle, Shenzhou V, in October 2003. Colonel Yang Liwei became the first Chinese to orbit the earth, spending 21.5 hours in orbit before his capsule landed by parachute in China’s northern grasslands.

Chinese earthquake victim’s family reaches Pakistan
From Javed Akhtar ( APP)

BEIJING—Family members of Chinese engineer Huang Bingkun, who was killed in devastating earthquake have reached Pakistan Wednesday, sources said here.
Huang was sent by the Guangxi Regional Hydro-electric Bureau to serve as an engineer at the Allai Khwar River area in northwestern Pakistan last February. A seven-member team, headed by Huang Changxian, a deputy chief of the bureau, included Huang’s wife Liang Xianwei and his 14-year-old son Huang Junming.
The remains of Huang Bingkun has been placed in a frozened case and will be cremated in Pakistan after his dear ones paid their last respects to the deceased.
Meanwhile, China Dongfang Electric Corporation sent a working group to Pakistan to visit its employees and deal with the aftermath of its engineer’s death in the earthquake.
The 39-year-old engineer Huang Bingkun, who worked in the engineering section of a hydropower station project in northwestern Pakistan’s Allai Khwar River area, was killed in the disaster last Saturday.
The working group will take measures to evacuate all the 30 employees who survived the earthquake from the quake-hit area. Accompanied the working group are some officials from the Guangxi Regional Hydro-electrical Bureau where Huang had worked and Huang’s family members.
Allai Khwar hydropower station project is one of the four contracted projects the corporation has in Pakistan. The rest 22 Chinese employees on the construction site of the hydropower project were confirmed safe.
Chinese rescue team: Multinational rescue teams decided to set up a UN coordination office in quake-stricken Pakistan with the Chinese rescue team as the coordinator.
According to the Chinese media’s reports, Zhao Heping, chief of the Chinese rescue team, said that the team which arrives in the disaster-stricken area the earliest is normally designated to serve as the coordinator of the rescue efforts, because the team is most informed about the situation and has been working longer than other teams.
The meeting decided that the rescue work would still focus on searching for survivors.