China carries on space projects with other nations, including a pair of scientific satellites launched with the European Space Agency and an Earth-mapping project with Brazil.

The next Chinese manned space flight is due next year. Officials say they also want to send up a space station and land a robot probe on the Moon by 2010.

At mission control, rows of technicians' desks equipped with computer screens stood empty Wednesday. A wall-mounted video screen showed scenes of Nie and Fei aboard their Shenzhou VI capsule.

At the astronaut school, which its director called the "key site" for training, Yang met reporters in a three-story-high room with a full-size model of a Shenzhou capsule for practice.

"The development of manned space flight and space resources are the common task of mankind," he said. "We hope to further our exchanges with our counterparts in foreign countries and learn from each other."