China space mission 'a great victory'

President Jiang Zemin has hailed the successful launch of China’s unmanned spacecraft Shenzhou IV, calling it a “great victory” that demonstrated the country’s increasing technological capabilities.

In a statement carried by the government’s Xinhua News Agency, Jiang congratulated everyone involved in the project and encouraged harder work to push China’s space programme forward – towards the government’s goal of sending up a Chinese space traveller as soon as possible.

The Shenzhou IV capsule, which blasted off from a rocket base in the Gobi desert, carried all the equipment for manned flight, the government said.

It said the mission would test life-support and other systems with an eye towards manned missions.