Portal:Spaceflight/Selected article/Week 42 2006

Shenzhou (Chinese: 神舟; pinyin: Shén Zhōu) is a spacecraft from the People's Republic of China which first carried a Chinese astronaut into orbit on October 15, 2003. Development began in 1992, with the first four unmanned test flights in 1999, 2001 and 2002. These were followed with another manned launch on October 12, 2005. It is launched on the Long March 2F from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center.

The name is variously translated as "Divine Craft", "Divine Vessel" or similar, but is also a pun on a literary name for China with the same pronunciation (神州; literally "Divine Land")

In March 2005, an asteroid was named 8256 Shenzhou in honor of the spacecraft.