The roots of the Chinese Manned Space Program go all the way back to 1966, only five years after the first Soviet and American space flights. At that time, Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong authorized studies into the cost and practicality of such a venture.

In 1970, China launched its first satellite into Earth orbit. At this time, Chairman Mao ordered a real effort to develop, and orbit, a manned spacecraft. Work commenced, but the program was scrapped after Mao's death in 1976. It was replaced with a much more modest program concerned with communication, and military unmanned satellites.

The idea of a manned space program in China was revived in 1986. Calls went out across the spectrum of the Chinese space industry and academecia to submit proposals for ideas which could develop into a manned space program. Many ideas were offered, but ultimately the seeds were sown for the Shenzhou (Divine Vessel) program with the launching of Project 921 in 1992.

The new spacecraft was loosely modeled after the Russian/Soviet Soyuz vehicle, workhorse of the Russian space program today. Project 921 called for three unmanned test flights, with an eye to the first manned launch in 2002. Work progressed throughout the 1990s, and into the early years of the 21st Century.

The manned rated booster to be used was the CZ-2F rocket, based on the successful satellite launcher, the CZ-2E "Long March". After years in the testing phase, the first Chinese manned spacecraft, Shenzhou V was launched from Jiuquan Launch Centre without trouble on 15 October 2003. Taikonaut Lt. Yang Liwei spent nearly a day in orbit, returning safely to Earth in the Chinese interior on 16 October 2003.

More on the Shenzhou vehicle:

Reference 1 - Reference 2 - Reverence 3 - Reference 4 - Reference 5

Main Source For History of Chinese Space Program

Best Website For Information On The Chinese Space Program: "Go Taikonauts"

With the successful flight of Shenzhou V, carrying aboard Taikonaut Lt. Yang Liwei, China has joined the very exclusive "space club". The 14 orbit, 21 hour, flight took place on 15/16 October 2003, making China the third spacefaring nation after Russia and the United States.

Being naturally curious about the launch, and having to deal with a total lack of coverage in the news where I live, I began to search the internet a few days ago for more information. I found a page hosted by the chinese news agency, Xinhua. On this page were a series of photos of the launch of the Long March 2F rocket. Upon close inspection of these photos, it became appearent that

there was also "something else" in the sky over Jiuquan Launch Centre that day.

Below is the series of photos for your perusal. Note that there is a dark coloured disk present not far from the Shenzhou 5 space craft as it soars toward orbit. This object persists for the entire series of pictures which the Chinese have made public This is not the first time publicly available pictures from the Chinese space programme have revealed something other than what is expected. A test launch of an unmanned Shenzhou capsule drew attention from a strange metallic object seen in the vicinity. There is an article on this site concerning that object. See it HERE.

We hope you are as amazed by this object as we are.

Since these are official Chinese governement photos, and show no signs of being tampered with, I must come to the conclusion that this object is an unknown.

At the end of the day, it's up to YOU to draw your own conclusions.

© 2006 Jeff Challender