File photo taken on Oct. 17, 2005 shows Chinese astronauts Fei Junlong and Nie Haisheng wave flowers beside the re-entry capsule of China's second manned spacecraft, Shenzhou-6, at its landing site in Siziwang Banner (County), north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The return of the Shenzhou-9 spacecraft to Earth on June 30, 2012 marked the end of a 13-day journey through space for three Chinese astronauts. But it also marked the beginning of a new journey for China as it inches closer to its goal of building a space station. The recent successful docking of the Shenzhou-9 and Tiangong-1 lab module marked a new height for Chinese space exploration, as well as a new leap forward for national rejuvenation. China's space exploration took a long time to ramp up. On July 16, 1990, China launched a Long March-2, a cluster carrier rocket, from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China's Sichuan Province, laying the foundation for manned spacecraft launches. On Nov. 20, 1999, a Long March-2F rocket blasted off at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China's Gansu Province, carrying China's first Shenzhou spacecraft into the space, which returned to earth after 14 orbits. On Jan. 10, 2001, China sent Shenzhou-2, the first formally unmanned spaceship, into the space, carried by a Long March-2F rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. It was followed by the launch of Shenzhou-3 and Shenzhou-4 in 2002. On Oct. 15, 2003, China conducted its first manned space mission with Shenzhou-5, which was carried into space by a Long March 2F rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. Yang Liwei, then 38, was onboard the spacecraft and returned after 21 hours and 14 trips around the Earth. On Oct. 12, 2005, a Long March-2F carrier sent Shenzhou-6 into orbit from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, China's second spaceflight. Astronauts Fei Junlong and Nie Haisheng were aboard. On Sept. 25, 2008, China used a Long March-2F rocket to lift the spacecraft Shenzhou-7 into space from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. Zhai Zhigang successfully completed China's first-ever space walk. China became the third country in the world to conduct extravehicular activity in space, following the Soviet Union and the United States. On Sept. 29, 2011, China launched its first space lab module Tiangong-1, which was carried by a Long March-2F rocket into space from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. It aimed to test the first space docking with Shenzhou-8, paving the way for China to operate a permanent space station around 2020, which would make it the world's third country to do so. (Xinhua/Wang Jianmin)
