Shenzhou 1 Launches on an Uncrewed Test Flight
China launched Shenzhou 1 on November 19, 1999, in Universal Time; it was already November 20 in China.
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The Event
China launched Shenzhou 1 on November 19, 1999, in Universal Time; it was already November 20 in China. The uncrewed spacecraft tested systems for a future human spaceflight program.
The Wider Story
The mission checked the performance of the launcher and spacecraft and returned a recoverable capsule. It preceded further tests before China's first astronaut mission.
Putting the Event in Perspective
This calendar uses the UTC launch date and makes the local-date difference explicit.
Reading the Historical Record
No astronaut flew aboard Shenzhou 1, and it should not be confused with Yang Liwei's Shenzhou 5 mission in 2003.
About the Historical Recreation
The accompanying visual is an illustrative reconstruction: a Long March 2F launch at night and an illustrative uncrewed Shenzhou capsule above Earth. It is not authentic archival footage, an eyewitness record or additional evidence for the event.
Sources
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