Taikonaut Zhai´s small step historical leap for China

Source: Xinhua | 09-27-2008 20:08

BEIJING, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- A small step by Zhai Zhigang, China's first spacewalker, has been a historical leap in China's space dreams.

The video grab taken on Sept. 27, 2008 in Beijing, China,  shows Chinese taikonaut Zhai Zhigang is outside the orbital  module.(Xinhua Photo)

The 42-year-old man ventured out of the earth-orbiting Shenzhou-7 spacecraft at about 4:43 p.m. Saturday, and became the first Chinese to leave a "footprint in the universe."

Millions of Chinese who watched his feat on television may not know Alexei Leonov, the first human to walk in space in 1965, or Neil Armstrong, the first person to set foot on the Moon in 1969, but they will remember the first Chinese "space rambler."

Another advancement in the space hall of fame for China -- it is now the third country in the world after the United States and Russia to be capable of spacewalk.

The success of the spacewalk is one step further towards China's longer-term goal to have a space lab and eventually a space station. It will enable the nation to take up more responsibility in mankind's peaceful use of space resources.

Symbolically, the mission adds an upbeat note to an eventful year that saw the January blizzard and the May earthquake. It is seen as another source of pride and joy for the people after the Olympics.

But the national also should clearly see the distance between China and the United States and Russia, which accomplished the tasks decades earlier. Compared with these countries, China is still late-comer and only taking its starting steps.

Since ancient times, the abysmal space has been source of inspiration for artistic creations such as poems and cave paintings in the oriental country. Legend has that the first astronaut may have been a Chinese Ming dynasty (1368-1644) government official Wan Hu, who strapped himself onto a primitive "space-voyager" made of a chair, two kites and 47 gunpowder fuses.

Such space dream came to be realized in a modern China. and it took off on the back of solid economic success.