A decade after the end of the space race, China is bringing politics back into manned spaceflight, as it tries to shed its image of a developing country for one of a new technological superpower for the 21st century.
China has dreamed of a manned flight since Mao's time, but as the once-mighty Russian space programme declines, it wants to become the third nation to put people into orbit and become the de facto second space power of the new century.
The first Shenzhou, translated as "magical heavenly vessel", which weighs 8.4 tonnes and is capable of carrying a crew of four, is now back in Beijing undergoing detailed examination after landing on the steppes of Inner Mongolia 21 hours after its launch from the Jiuquan space centre on a Long March (not the first time space has been used to recall history) rocket. "My reading of the situation is that it is related to the fact that the Chinese commercial rocket fleet has been effectively grounded by restrictions on flying US-built satellites. The Chinese are feeling very sore about this because they were earning money from that," said a Dublin-based academic researcher, Mr Brian Harvey. He is author of The Chinese Space Programme, one of few Western books on the subject.
He's not saying their manned flights aim to get one back on the Americans. "But I think it gave them an added impetus to demonstrate their independence in space and leadership in the Asia region. It is, in effect, saying the next century is going to be Asiacentric, and they intend to lead it from the beginning."
There was a rumour that they were going to launch a manned spaceship on the 50th anniversary of the Communist Revolution last month, but that never materialised. So when can we expect the first "Sinonauts"?
"If they were in a mad rush they could launch a manned version within a month, but I don't think they are, so we should look out for a flight in March or April. There has been a steady stream of Chinese pilots going to Moscow. It is all very slow and deliberate, and it will definitely happen," he said.
Years of Russian experience with launching its own satellites has been aided by its growing economic crisis, with the cash-starved space officials there willing to sell their once-secret technology. They bought a Soyuz spacecraft (used to carry Russian cosmonauts to Mir), space suits and time at the Cosmonaut Training Centre outside Moscow.
Although the two nations, which once distrusted each other more than they did the US, co-operated out of economic necessity, recent pictures of Shenzhou showing a craft with a striking resemblance to Soyuz are not what they first seem.
"The Russian input hasn't been really big," said Mr Harvey. "They were the only people the Chinese could go to for help, but at the end of the day it is a home-grown design. They have developed what is the first new manned spacecraft to be flown since the early 1980s; the first for 20 years."
Is the development of a space station to rival the International Space Station the ultimate aim? He believes the ISS did play a part in all this, with the Chinese revealing plans for a modest station within five years. "They could run the world's second manned space station early in the new century, and that would be quite politically significant."
When Chinese cosmonauts finally look down on Earth from orbit early next year, it will be a fitting event for the nation which invented the rocket over 1,000 years before.