CHINA displayed its dreams of becoming a superpower yesterday, blasting two officers from the People’s Liberation Army into space on its second manned mission.

To shrieks of delight on the ground and gasps of awe from a nationwide audience watching the rare live television coverage, the Shenzhou VI craft was rocketed into orbit from a remote snow-dusted desert launch pad in the northwestern Gansu province. Fei Junlong, 40, and Nie Haishen, 41, chosen from a pool of six pilots, will spend five days orbiting the Earth. Wen Jiabao, the Prime Minister, described the mission as “glorious and sacred”.

“Feeling pretty good,” Mr Fei said in the first broadcast comment from the astronauts, known in China as “taikonauts”. The decision to show live images of the astronauts waving in the cockpit to hundreds of millions of Chinese was a sign of the growing confidence of the China National Space Administration about sending men — and, in future, women — into space. The first launch, in 2003, when Yang Liwei circled the Earth for 21½ hours and returned a hero was shrouded at the start in secrecy.

Mr Fei and Mr Nie voiced confidence before they blasted off into space, saying: “There is nothing to worry about. We will accomplish the mission resolutely. See you in Beijing.” They are due to land in Inner Mongolia, probably on Monday.

Minutes after lift-off, mission control announced that the first-stage booster had separated successfully from the rocket and the flight had entered its preset orbit. The two taikonauts will conduct experiments but no details were available. China, now a member of an elite club, with the US and Russia, that has put men into space, said that its aspirations were peaceful and that it opposed deploying weapons in space. But it has ambitions to become a serious player.

A national astronaut training centre was set up in Beijing this week, officials hope to begin space walks by 2007, to land an unmanned probe on the moon by 2010, to launch a space station and to put women into space by the end of the decade.

Once the Shenzhou, or Divine Vessel, was safely in orbit, the two former fighter pilots had breakfast. They ate pineapple-filled mooncakes, a sweet, sticky autumn delicacy. They can also choose from a wide selection of rations, from braised bamboo shoots to rice porridge, all easily rehydrated in a machine that looks like a toaster. They will drink water drilled from 1,700 metres under ground.

Mr Fei is said to be possibly China’s top pilot. He impressed his peers in 1992 when he successfully made an emergency landing when his jet ran short of fuel during a test flight. In January 1998 he was selected from more than 1,500 pilots as a member of the army’s astronaut brigade.

Mr Nie is portrayed as no less of a hero. He was commended for his courage when he averted a potential air disaster by “risking his life” to land a plane safely in 1989. The hardest part of fulfilling his dream to go into space was winning over his wife. “I did a hell of a lot of talking to her and helped her more often with housework to win her over,” Mr Nie said.

The mission is a prestige project for China’s Communist leaders, who have justified the expense of a manned space programme by saying that it will drive economic development. In cyberspace, Chinese lavished praise on the venture. One comment was: “No one can bully us any more!” Others would have preferred greater discretion. On one chat page a visitor wrote: “Why did we broadcast everything? You can even see the faces of the astronauts, while the Americans only broadcast from a distance. We have exposed too much and should be careful.”

He was met with a scoff: “Do you think a Rolls-Royce would be interested in a motorcyle?” Brian Harvey, the Dublin-based author of a book on China’s space endeavours, estimated Chinese spending on its space programme at about $6 billion (£3.4 billion); a shoestring operation at one sixth of American expenditure. He had an explanation for why China was pushing ahead: “The answer really lies in prestige first, direct economic and social applications second, and using the space programme as a cutting-edge tool for technology third.”

COUNTDOWN

April, 1970: China launches a satellite using a modified intercontinental ballistic missile, later renamed the Long March 1 rocket. It orbited for 26 days, transmitting the revolutionary song The East is Red

1990: China launches and recovers a “biosat” containing 60 animals and plants

1992: Project 921, the mission to put China’s first man in space, is approved by the communist leadership

November, 1999: Shenzhou spacecraft takes off on a one-day flight from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre

October, 2003: China launches its first manned space mission with Yang Liwei on board

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