China's second manned space mission ended successfully this morning when two astronauts touched down in the empty steppes of Inner Mongolia after orbiting the Earth for five days.

"Taikonauts" Fei Junlong, 40, and Nie Haisheng, 41, climbed out of their Shenzhou VI space capsule after it landed safely at 4:33am local time, just one kilometre from its intended landing site. Their mission had taken them around the Earth 76 times and a distance of 3.25 million km (2 million miles).

Xinhua, the state news agency, announced the landing in a news flash - "No worrisome situation occurs in China's second spacemission" - setting off patriotic celebrations across the country, including firecrackers and dances in Fei and Nie's home towns.

State television showed the two astronauts clambering out of their capsule unaided, before standing and waving to journalists.

"The motherland is so great!" Xinhua quoted Fei’s father as saying.

Xinhua offered its own commentary on the space mission. "Let us raise a welcoming toast to our heroes," the agency said. "The two men’s space journey has touched 1.3 billion beating hearts. These 120 hours have distilled a national dream of half a century.

"At this moment, history is returning dignity and sanctity to the Chinese nation. In memories of the not too distant past, we were poor, in darkness and endured the bullying of imperialist powers."

Tang Xianming, director of China's Manned Space Engineering Office, told a press conference that China would now aim for a spacewalk by 2007 and would consider putting a woman in space in the near future.

Watching the landing from the space command centre in Beijing, Wu Bangguo, Chairman of the National People's Congress, said the mission had "raised China’s international status, our economic and technological strength, defence and national cohesion".

According to Xinhua, China has run its ambitious space programme on a relatively small budget. The whole Shenzhou programme, which launched China's first man into space in 2003, has been built for about $2.3 billion, a fraction of Nasa's $16 billion budget for 2005 alone.

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