After a decade of preparation and months of speculation, China made a concrete commitment Friday to human space travel, announcing plans to launch a manned capsule into orbit next week and enter one of mankind's most rarefied clubs - that of the spacefaring nations. The tentative date: between Wednesday and Friday of next week, "at a proper time." The number of orbits for the still-unidentified first Chinese "taikonaut" and the Shenzhou 5 craft: 14. The announcement, which represents both a technological and political victory for China's leaders, was sent as a flash on the wire of the government's Xinhua News Agency.

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