Chinese astronauts end five-day space mission

The two astronauts on China’s second manned space flight landed before dawn today, shown live on state TV as they emerged from their capsule smiling and waving after a five-day mission.

Within hours of the landing, a space official announced China’s next ambition - a possible space walk in 2007.

The Shenzhou 6 capsule with astronauts Fei Junlong and Nie Haisheng aboard landed by parachute in China’s northern grasslands. State television showed the astronauts climbing out of their capsule and clambering down a ladder in the pre-dawn darkness.

The country’s No.2 leader, Wu Bangguo, declared the flight a success, saying it would “further improve the country’s international status and national strength, and will help to mobilise its people to rally around the Communist Party and work harder for the future of the country.”

Fei and Nie blasted off on Wednesday from a base in China’s desert north-west, becoming only the third country to send a human into orbit on its own, after Russia and the United States.