China successfully launched its latest space ship today putting a three-man crew into orbit.
The mission that blasted off in clear skies in north-western China is the country's most challenging since it first launched a person into space in 2003.
A spacewalk by one of the astronauts is expected to take place either tomorrow or Saturday.
China sent two more astronauts on a five-day flight on its Shenzhou VI craft in October 2005.
Officials and state media have hailed the scheduled space feats as national triumphs, crowning the successes of the Beijing Olympics and dramatising the country's broader ambitions.
"We have the confidence, determination and ability to make the nation's first step in outer space," one of the astronauts, Jing Haipeng, told a news conference yesterday.
The ability to do what is also called "extra-vehicular activity" is essential for China's long-term goals of an orbiting station in the next decade and possibly a visit to the moon.
"The current manned spacecraft is just a tool toward a space station," said Jiao Weixin, a space scientist at Peking University. "It's laying a foundation for the future."
With a name meaning "sacred vessel," the Shenzhou program is secretively run through military and government agencies and its budget is murky. In 2003, officials said it had cost 18 billion yuan (€1.78 billion) up to then.
Reuters