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/ 12 October 2005

Taikonaut? Yuhangyuan?

For a nation that is already two years into its manned space programme, China displays a remarkable lack of consensus on what to call its men in orbit. This is no trifling matter since space travellers are probably the only profession in the world with different names in different countries, reflecting their status as belonging to a tiny elite.

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/ 12 October 2005

Orchestrated jubilation on China’s space frontier

Waving banners and banging drums, thousands of primary school children on Wednesday paraded through the northwest Chinese city of Jiuquan, celebrating the nation’s second manned foray into space. ”Shenzhou VI successfully launched,” they chanted in not entirely perfect unison, one hour after China’s most ambitious space mission yet blasted off from a secretive launch site in the desert three hours’ drive away.