On this day - 15 October
Historical items of interest as featured in the papers of the day.
China achieves human spaceflight
On October 15th 2003 China launched the Shenzhou 5, the first human spaceflight mission undertaken as part of the Chinese spaceflight program. The Shenzhou spacecraft had been used for four previous uncrewed missions prior to Shenzhou 5.
On Shenzhou 5 14 orbits of the Earth were undertaken and the craft landed successfully 21 hours after it took off. This was a major milestone for China as they became the third nation to have achieved the independent capability for human spaceflight.
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