"We have been told our live broadcast of the launch will be on the 15th. But we do not know the exact time of the launch on the day," a China Central Television news centre official told AFP.

Several analysts had tipped October 15 as the date and state-run Phoenix TV, broadcast from Hong Kong, also Wednesday quoted reliable sources as confirming this was the preliminary timeframe.

"Relevant sources said that upon close examination of the weather and other important elements, the preliminary launch date of the Shenzhou V has been set for October 15," Phoenix said.

The date is a day after the end of a key communist party meeting in Beijing attended by the country's top leaders, allowing China's leaders the opportunity to make their way to the launch site in the country's northwest.

Xie Guangxuan, an engineer who headed the unmanned Shenzhou III mission, said the Chinese would follow the example of the former Soviet Union and the United States when they made their maiden manned flights in the 1960s, the Oriental Morning News reported.

When Russian Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space in 1961, his flight lasted 108 minutes aboard Vostok 1. Days later American Alan Shepard spent just 15 minutes on a suborbital flight.

Xie, who now works for the China Academy of Sciences, was quoted as saying the Shenzhou V flight would last around 90 mintues.

"As far as I know concerning the testing and check ups, all preparations for the launch of the Shenzhou at present are going smoothly," said Xie.

If the mission succeeds, China will become only the third country to send a man into space. Experts believe just one astronaut will make the trip, selected from a team of 14.

Four unmanned Shenzhou capsules have so far been been launched since 1999 in preparation.

The CCTV official said the spacecraft will blast off from a launch pad in Inner Mongolia.

The Jiuquan Space Launch Center in northwestern Gansu province will coordinate the historic flight.

The centre has three launch pads in the vicinity, and the launch will take place from one some 200 kilometres (124 miles) north in Inner Mongolia, CCTV said.

The facility was built in the 1960s as China's first ballistic missile and satellite launch centre and has been used extensively in China's satellite and space program.

Xie said that space administrators were most concerned about the re-entry of the capsule when it goes through a "black barrier" some 80 kilometersmiles) from the earth's surface and losses contact with Chinese ground stations.

For some 30 kilometers (18.6 miles), as the capsule goes through the earth's atmosphere, temperatures will reach up to 2,000 degrees centigrade, he said.

"During the Shenzhou series of flights, there has been one difficulty and that has been the re-entry of the space capsule," Xie said.

The capsule is expected to land in Inner Mongolia.

SPACE.WIRE