Yuhangyuan have arrived!

First, there were cosmonauts, followed shortly thereafter by the astronauts, and now China has added a new term to our vocabulary, "yuhangyuan" (meaning travellers in space.)

China today launched their first human into space, Yang Liwei, aboard a Shenzhou 5 ("divine vessel") spacecraft, similar to the Soyuz but much more advanced. He is still up there as I write this, expected to return to Earth tomorrow.

Despite the predictable paranoid ramblings from the Pentagon, this is another milestone of human history. Some (like the Times of India) may feel bitter, pointing out that Russia and the United States were there before them, but I say the more the merrier.

I wish Liwei the best of success for the rest of his flight.

Story can be found, among other places, here

Yang Liwei has returned to earth

Just in case you were curious :-)

Congratulations, China, on their first successful manned space launch.
During the launch, he unfurled not only the Chinese flag, but also that of the United Nations, to "highlight China's persistent stand for peaceful exploration and exploitation of space,"

The next one is not yet scheduled, but is expected to be within 6 months.

One article is here

By the way, a very good web site tracking ongoing developments in China's space program is here (Though it can be a little slow tracking major developments like this one :-)