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China Launches Manned Space Flight

NPR | By Rob Gifford
Published October 15, 2003 at 12:00 AM EDT
China's first astronaut, Yang Liwei, 38, boards the Shenzhou 5 space vehicle at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, in the northwestern province of Gansu, Oct. 15, 2003.
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China's first astronaut, Yang Liwei, 38, boards the Shenzhou 5 space vehicle at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, in the northwestern province of Gansu, Oct. 15, 2003.

China launches its first manned space flight, becoming just the third nation to rocket a man into orbit. The Shenzhou 5 space vehicle blasted off Wednesday from northwest China carrying one astronaut. NPR's Rob Gifford reports.

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Rob Gifford
Rob Gifford is the NPR foreign correspondent based in Shanghai.
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