Liwei Yang signed photo

Yang Liwei and his Shenzhou 5 spacecraft’s flight on the 15th October 2003 established China as only the third nation to send a person into space.
About 21 hours after the spaceship blasted off from the Gobi Desert carrying the nation's first ''Taikonaut,'', a lieutenant colonel in the Chinese military, the re-entry capsule separated from the propulsion module and began descending toward Earth, according to the official New China News Agency. State television said the capsule entered China's airspace at roughly 6 a.m. and continued its descent to the ground.
Colonel Yang, who is expected to become China's newest hero, took a short, congratulatory telephone call from the Chinese prime minister, Wen Jiabao. The 38-year-old astronaut was reported to be in ''good spirits'' and was first shown in brief television footage emerging from the capsule in his space suit and then waving to cameras
(Irford grossy phloto)