China's manned rocket launch overlooked grave of space program pioneer

BEIJING (AFP) Oct 15, 2003
China's first manned space flight took off Wednesday from a site will take place close to the burial place of Nie Rongzhen, one of the founders of China's space program.

Nie is one among 500 people, all participants in China's decades-old efforts to reach into space, who are buried at a cemetary near the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern Gansu province, Xinhua news agency reported.

A marshal in the People's Liberation Army, he was a driving force not just in China's space program but also its endeavors to acquire a nuclear bomb. He died in 1992.

The Shenzhou V manned space vehicle was launched into space at 9:00 a.m. (0100 GM) on Wednesday, placing China alongside Russia and the United States as the only countries to put a man in space.

SPACE.WIRE