This Day, That Year

Item from July 16, 1997, in China Daily: Beijing students from the Middle School Attached to Tsinghua University talk to astronauts aboard the US space shuttle Columbia via shortwave radio on Monday. It was the first time Chinese students spoke to astronauts in space.

China started its manned space program in 1992 and seven years later, the country launched its first unmanned experimental spacecraft, Shenzhou I.

So far, 10 spacecraft and one space lab module have been launched, and 10 Chinese astronauts have been sent into space. China aims to build a permanent, manned space station by 2020. The country's first astronaut, Yang Liwei, went into orbit in October 2003, making China the third country to launch astronauts into space using its own spacecraft, after the former Soviet Union and the US.