Special Report: Third Manned Space Mission

Commentary: Taikonaut Zhai's small step historical leap for China

China's first spacewalker

Backgrounder: Chinese footprints in outer space

    by Xinhua writer Chang Ai-ling

    BEIJING, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- While tainted milk has cast the brand of China-made into international humiliation, another China-made, Shenzhou-7 spacecraft, brought pride and glory to the country's 1.3 billion population.

    Although highly risky, China's third manned space mission, Shenzhou-7, came to a perfect ending Sunday afternoon as three beaming taikonauts returned from the outer space to the cheers of the whole nation.

    Launched from the northwest Gobi area on Thursday, the Shenzhou-7 completed all its tasks, including the country's first ever spacewalk, as planned.

    Looking back through man's history of space exploration, the Chinese seem to be unusually lucky as they have recorded zero accidents in the manned space missions. Both the United States and Russia (or Soviet Union) have experienced tragic moments in their space adventures.

    Lucky maybe the Chinese are, it is prudence and diligence of the Chinese aerospace professionals that make the glittery record.

    Xinhua reporters invited to the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center noticed that the most often seen slogans hung at the Gobi center was "Scrupulous About Every Detail" and "Accurate to Each Second."

    Deputy Commander-In-Chief of the mission's rocket system Zhang Zhisheng told reporters that the word he hated most was the vague notion of "usual practice". "There was no such thing as 'Usual Practice' in work. Strict observance of standard is a must," said Zhang. "This is not a high standard, but a starting line."

    With this standard in mind, the Long March carrier rocket Zhang and his team developed have completed 109 successful missions, including the launch of four unmanned spacecrafts and three manned spacecrafts.

    However, in the tainted milk scandal, standard was overtly defied.

    Knowing that adding melamine into milk was wrong, milk collectors still did it. Well aware that product quality was not up to the standard, milk companies still sold it. In pursuit of profit, standard made way for substandard "usual practice" in the industry.

    There is no doubt that the Shenzhou-7 mission will greatly boost Chinese people's national pride and kindle the aspiration for science in the nation's young, as well as benefit China's economic growth.

    As the whole nation is talking about Shenzhou-7's scientific significance, people from all walks of life should also learn from Chinese space scientists their rigorous adherence to the highest standard in work.

    It's not only their technologies that can be put into civilian use, but also their observance to the highest professional standard.