China's second unmanned spacecraft returns fully successful

The Shenzhou ("Magic Ship") II landed at 7:22 p.m. (1122 GMT) after completing 108 orbits of the earth in seven days, the report said. Biological and physical experiments carried on the spacecraft were all "finished smoothly" and the mission was "fully successful", it said. Shenzhou II was launched last Wednesday as part of China's attempt to put an astronaut into space within three years.

China launched its first unmanned spacecraft, the Shenzhou I, in November 1999 and would become the third country after the U.S. and Russia to send a person into orbit. Shenzhou II would be followed by several more simulated manned flights before China's first astronaut is sent into orbit by early 2003, scientists at the Jiuquan launch centre told Deutsche Presse-Agentur, dpa last week. The government released plans in November for an ambitious 20-year programme to build an "integrated ground-space network" for space exploration and manned space research, including space stations.

Astronauts have already started training for the manned space flight programme, which began in 1992. Shenzhou II carried 25 biological experiments using live animals, insects, plants, tissue and cells in three sealed boxes, state media said. The biological material included a turtle, fruit flies, plankton and bacteria, scientists at the launch centre and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) said last Thursday. One unconfirmed report said the capsule contained at least one rodent.

(la/dpa)