China launched its first manned spaceship at 9:00 am Wednesday, becoming the 3rd country in the world to send a person into orbit after the former Soviet Union and the United States. Astronaut Yang Liwei became China's first space man.

With a column of beautiful smoke, the Shenzhou 5 (Divine Vessel V) craft cut across a bright northwest China sky at exactly 9 am Wednesday (9 pm Tuesday EDT) and went into orbit 10 minutes later.

China Central Television's Channel One, the government's flagship station, cut into its regular programming to announce the launch. The station later showed Shenzhou streaking into the sky and disappearing, its tracer billowing behind it.

Minutes after the launch, a CCTV announcer said that Shenzhou 5 and 38-year-old Yang Liwei, an air force pilot since 1983, had "entered orbit at 9:10." It reported Yang was "reading a flight manual in the capsule of the Shenzhou-5 spacecraft and looked composed and at ease."

"I feel good," Yang radioed back from space after a half-hour in flight in the earth's orbit, his face vividly seen on the watch big screen in the Beijing Control Centre, located in Haidian District, northwestern Beijing. Yang's report drew loud applause.

General Li Jinai, commander of the country's manned space program, was quoted by CCTV as saying the spacecraft was operating normally in orbit.

Chinese President Hu Jintao watched the launch at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in northwest China's Gansu Province. Hu and Vice-Premier Huang Ju flew to Jiuquan Tuesday afternoon, after the third plenum of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee concluded Tuesday morning in Beijing. Premier Wen Jiabao, Vice-President Zeng Qinghong and other top Chinese leaders watched the event at the Beijing control center.

Following the launch, President Hu Jintao delivered a speech hailing the successful launch. Hu said that China has just made a first step in its bid for the space.

Wednesday's launch makes China the third country to put a human into space. The former Soviet Union sent Yuri Gagarin up in 1961; the United States launched Alan B. Shepard Jr. a month later. John Glenn became the first American in orbit in 1962.

In Washington, Pentagon spokeswoman Cheryl Irwin said, "We wish them success and for their astronaut's safe return."

NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe also congratulated on China's first successful human space flight. "This launch is an important achievement in the history of human exploration. China, after Russia and the United States, is only the third nation to successfully launch humans into space. The Chinese people have a long and distinguished history of exploration. NASA wishes China a continued safe human space flight program." O'Keefe said.

Referring to China's earlier unmanned space launches, an announcer on the English-language government channel CCTV-9 invoked American astronaut Neil Armstrong's words upon first walking on the moon. "If these were small steps," the announcer said, "then now we are taking a giant leap into space."

control center in Beijing

Security was tight around the remote Gobi Desert base, some 175 miles northeast of Jiuquan. On Wednesday morning, the only road to the launch site was crowded with traffic, including military vehicles and civilian tour buses. But private cars were turned back and phone calls to the base were blocked.

The Shenzhou 5 launch came after four test launches of unmanned capsules that orbited the Earth for nearly a week before parachuting back to China's northern grasslands. Media say the manned flight is expected to last about 22 hours.

"The launch of Shenzhou 5 is long-awaited by the Chinese people," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said Tuesday. She said the flight was a key step in the "peaceful development of space".

CCTV released a picture of Yang Liwei, 38, a pilot since 1983, boarding Shenzhou 5 about 8 am (8 p.m. EDT) Wednesday.

"I will not disappoint the who Chinese people and the motherland. I will complete each movement with total concentration. And I will gain honor for the People's Liberation Army and for the Chinese nation," Yang took an oath before before boarding.

Yang, who is 5 feet, 6 inches tall, was born in 1965 in Youzhong County in Liaoning province, an industrial area in China's northeast. His older sister said he was an athletic child who enjoyed swimming and ice skating. He works for the Aviation Military Unit of China's People's Liberation Army, Chinese media said.