¡¡¡¡PARIS, Oct. 15 (Xinhuanet) -- The European Space Agency (ESA) on Wednesday congratulated China for successfully putting an astronaut into orbit aboard the Shenzhou V spacecraft in a historic mission.

¡¡¡¡"China becomes the third country to send human beings into space, demonstrating the reliability of its aerospace technology. This mission could open up to a new era of wider cooperation in the world space community," said ESA Director General Jean-JacquesDordain in a statement.

¡¡¡¡"We extend our warmest congratulations to the People's Republic of China on this outstanding achievement," he said.

¡¡¡¡"ESA and China already have a long-standing record of cooperation that began in 1980 with an agreement to facilitate the exchange of scientific information," said Dordain.

¡¡¡¡The cooperation agreement with the Chinese Academy of Science related to the launch of ESA Cluster satellites was signed in 1993,and another agreement between EAS and China in the Double Star project was signed in 2001, he said.

¡¡¡¡"The way has been paved not only for reciprocal exchanges between scientists, but also for the establishment of broad cooperation between ESA and the Chinese government," he added.

¡¡¡¡ESA and China will soon materialize space cooperation for peaceful purposes covering the areas of space science, Earth observation, environmental monitoring, meteorology, telecommunications and satellite navigation, microgravity research and human resource development and training, he said. Enditem