The crew of China's second manned space mission returned safely to Earth on 16 October, boosting the country's reputation as a spacefaring nation.

“This proves they are now a player to stay,” says Joan Johnson-Freese, an expert on China's space programme at the US Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. Economic development, education and national pride are important motivating factors, but the mission also serves as a global advertisement of China's technological capability, Johnson-Freese says.

Fei Junlong (left) and Nie Haisheng arrive back from their five-day trip in space. Credit: AFP/GETTY IMAGES

The launch follows China's first manned mission in October 2003, when Yang Liwei spent 21 hours in orbit. This mission was more ambitious, with two ‘taikonauts’ — Fei Junlong and Nie Haisheng — spending five days in orbit in their Shenzhou craft, which is a close copy of the Russian Soyuz capsule. During the mission, the taikonauts took off their space suits to conduct undisclosed scientific experiments in a habitation module attached to their small re-entry capsule.

Shortly after they landed in Inner Mongolia, the director of the Manned Space Engineering Office, Tang Xianming, outlined plans for the next mission. “Our estimate is that around 2007 our astronauts will walk in space,” Tang told the state-run newspaper China Daily.

Chinese delegates to an international conference on lunar exploration in Toronto, Canada, last month also outlined near-term plans for robotic missions to the moon, including the Chang'E scientific orbiter set to launch in 2007. “China will be active in humanity's exploration of unknown space,” Hao Xifan of the Beijing-based China National Space Administration told the conference. He did not comment on Chinese plans to send astronauts to the Moon.