China's first manned spaceship - Shenzhou V (Divine Vessel V) blasts off into space at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Northwest China's Gansu Province at 9 am Wednesday morning October 15, 2003. The control center described the launch as a success. [Photo/All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese and China Intercontinental Press]

Shenzhou 2, China's first self-developed unmanned spacecraft, blasts off into space at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center at 9 pm on January 10, 2001. [Photo/All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese and China Intercontinental Press]

 

Chinese astronauts Jing Haipeng (L), Zhai Zhigang (C) and Liu Boming in training. Chinese astronauts are undergoing intense training courses so as to calmly cope with ordeals during the launching and returning processes such as overweight, weightlessness, high temperature, high radiation and noise. [Photo/All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese and China Intercontinental Press]

A teacher touches a model of a rocket as pupils look on at the Boxing County Experimental Primary School of Shandong Province on Sept 23, 2008. [Photo/All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese and China Intercontinental Press]

Chinese astronauts Zhai Zhigang (M), Liu Boming (R) and Jing Haipeng salute in front of a Chinese national flag at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, Gansu province, September 24, 2008, a day before the launch of the Shenzhou VII manned spacecraft. [Photo/All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese and China Intercontinental Press]