'Solid basis' for manned missions

China’s third unmanned space vehicle was successfully recovered in Inner Mongolia after orbiting the globe 108 times, China Daily said. A senior official of the country’s space programme told the newspaper that the Shenzhou III mission laid a solid basis for manned space flight and that, after further unmanned tests, China would send astronauts into space in the early years of this century. This would be followed by the launch of space labs, manned by scientists for short periods, and then by a manned space station. However, the official declined to reveal a timetable for the programme.