17. 中国十年的航天事业发展
About 10 years has passed since China first sent a man into space. Yang Liwei orbited the Earth 14 times during his complete 21-hour flight with the Shenzhou 5 spacecraft in 2003. More than 40 years after Yuri Gagarin's groundbreaking journey, China has become the third country after the former Soviet Union and the US to carry out an independent manned space flight. And China has successfully launched its first target spacecraft and space laboratory, Tiangong-1.
自从中国首次将人类送上太空，已经过去了大约十年。2003年，在神舟5号整个21小时的航程中，杨利伟绕地球飞行了14圈。40多年前，尤里·加加林（Yuri Gagarin）的旅程可称开天辟地，40余年后，中国成为继前苏联（the former Soviet Union）和美国之后第三个能自主进行载人航天飞行的国家，并成功发射了中国第一个目标飞行器（target spacecraft）空间实验室（space laboratory）天宫一号。
