China's first man in orbit says Great Wall cannot be seen from space

BEIJING (AFP) Oct 16, 2003
China's first man in orbit, Yang Liwei, Thursday put an end to a widely held belief that the Great Wall is the only man-made object visible from outer space.

"The scenery was very beautiful," Yang said in an interview on China Central Television about his 21-hour space voyage. "But I didn't see the Great Wall."

Yang gave the interview 15 hours after he landed in Inner Mongolia early Thursday on board the Shenzhou V space craft, having completed 14 orbits around the world.

Yang told the interviewer he had only had time to sleep for about 30 minutes.

He said he had been too busy to be particularly worried about anything, but had started feeling a bit homesick as he reentered the atmosphere.

SPACE.WIRE