China has put its first man in space, sending a single astronaut on a 21-hour odyssey around the Earth four decades after the Soviet Union and the United States pioneered manned space flight.
The Long March 2F rocket carrying "taikonaut" Yang Liwei lifted off into a clear blue sky over the Gobi desert at 9 a.m. (2 a.m. Irish time) on today and entered its predetermined orbit 10 minutes later.
The official Xinhua news agency quickly declared the launch a success.
"I feel good and my conditions are normal," Xinhua quoted Yang as saying from space as the Shenzhou V, or "Divine Ship V", was making its first pass around the Earth.
Yang, 38, is part of an historic mission which, if completed, will make China just the third nation to successfully put a man into space - and return him to Earth - over 40 years behind the former Soviet Union and the United States.
At the Jiuquan Space Centre onlookers clapped and cheered as the Shenzhou V rocket lifted off into a clear blue sky.
A thousand miles (1,600 km) away in the capital, pride was mixed with relief as state television broadcast delayed pictures of the launch -- after a safe interval and an official declaration that the launch had been a success.
The launch was a boost for the leaders of the world's most populous nation. President Hu Jintao, who witnessed the lift-off, spoke of the "glory of our great motherland".
Economists played down the commercial implications of the mission.
"The economic benefit of such a launch is pretty minimal," said Tai Hui with Standard Chartered in Hong Kong. "It is a show of muscle, a show of power to the region."
In the United States, NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe described the launch as an important achievement for China.
"The Chinese people have a long and distinguished history of exploration," he said in a statement. "NASA wishes China a continued safe human space flight programme."
Japan added its praise. "We want to offer our congratulations for the success from the bottom of our heart," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said.
State media hailed the spacecraft as China's most sophisticated, with breakthrough technology including fault-detection and escape systems.
Quoted by the China Daily, Huang Chunping, commander-in-chief of rocket systems, said: "The rocket that will launch the Shenzhou V spaceship is the best of all. It is of superior quality and has stood our most stringent testing."
Speaking at Jiuquan, President Hu described the success as a "mark for the initial victory of the country's first manned space flight and for the significant, historic step by the Chinese people in scaling the peak of the world's science and technology", Xinhua quoted Hu as saying.
Yang, who follows a trail blazed by Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin and American Alan Shepard in 1961, was due to orbit the Earth 14 times and touch down in Inner Mongolia at 7 a.m. tommorow
A lieutenant colonel in the People's Liberation Army selected from a pool of 14, Yang is the son of a teacher and an official at an agricultural firm. He was raised in Suizhong county in the northeast "rustbelt" province of Liaoning."We are proud of him," his brother-in-law told Reuters just minutes before the launch. "We don't worry about his safety because we trust the nation's advanced technology."Yang was to dine on specially designed packets of shredded pork with garlic and "eight treasure" rice, washed down with Chinese tea, state media said.A successful mission would mark the crowning moment for a space programme launched by Mao Zedong in 1958 but quickly left far behind in the Cold War "space race" rivalry that saw the United States put a man on the moon in 1969."THE EAST IS RED"A year later, China launched its first satellite aboard a Long March rocket, which orbited the Earth blaring out the Cultural Revolution anthem "The East is Red."A tight veil of secrecy has blanketed the space programme and the 58.3-metre-high (191-foot-high), 479.8-tonne craft.Success would spur China's scientific programmes and emergence on the world stage marked by more active diplomacy, a winning bid to host the 2008 Olympics and a robust economy.Failure would lead to a national bout of handwringing and cast a sharp spotlight on China's many problems, from unemployment to disgruntled peasants to a growing gap between rich and poor.China invented gunpowder and legend has it that a Ming dynasty (1368-1644) official named Wan Hu attempted the world's first space launch. He strapped himself to a chair with kites in each hand as 47 servants lit 47 gunpowder-packed bamboo tubes tied to the seat.When the smoke had cleared, Wan was apparently found to have been obliterated. But the dream was not.