Welcome home, Yang Liwei

10/16/2003

CHINA'S HISTORIC launch of a manned spacecraft this week made it the third member of what might be considered an exclusive international explorers club -- as well as a universal symbol of the pioneering spirit that quickens pulses around the planet whenever human beings venture beyond their world.

The spacecraft, Shenzhou 5, a decade in the making, roared into the sky from the Gobi Desert at 9 a.m. Tuesday -- 9 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time -- and returned safely to the grassland of Inner Mongolia last night after 14 orbits over 21 hours.

The lone pilot, Yang Liwei, evoked memories of Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin and American astronauts Alan Shepard and John Glenn, who tested the limits of engineering, and themselves, when they took their countries into the space age 40 years ago.

Liwei, dubbed "the taikonaut" -- a nickname created from the Chinese word for "sky" -- seemed to capture the exhilaration of predecessors communicating with Earth when, according to the official Xinhua News Agency, he told his family: "I'm feeling very good in space, and it looks extremely splendid around here."

The event partially lifted the usually impenetrable cloak of secrecy that shrouds Chinese politics -- although government officials could have done better by showing the launch live instead of on videotape and should have revealed the identity of the pilot before the rocket was in the air.

The government did not want to risk humilation by broadcasting what might have been a disastrous event. The same attitude prevailed in the country's handling of the deadly SARS epidemic, which China kept hidden as the disease spread, thereby endangering the world.

Still, the country deserves credit for providing extensive coverage of the space mission on the website of the official newspaper, People's Daily, which included detailed descriptions of the rocket, as well as an e-mail chat room with comments critical of the project.

Speaking at a press briefing in Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhang Oiyue seemed to capture the spirit of global citizenship when he said of the mission: "It is an important advance for all mankind in exploring outer space. China stands ready to cooperate with the rest of the world on the peaceful use of outer space."

In a phone interview, David Aguilar -- director of public affairs at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics -- called the launch a "monumental event" that would be good for the moribund US space program because "competition is always good."

The fire of enthusiasm is welcome, for China's announced plans to go to the moon, then Mars, recapture what might be called America's youth, reminding us and all cultures that man can indeed soar on his dreams.