China launched its first manned space flight on Wednesday and became only the third country to put a man into orbit.

Lift-off from the Gobi desert was at 9 a.m., the start of a mission that it is hoped will rocket China into the exclusive space club pioneered by the former Soviet Union and United States four decades ago.

The manned spacecraft Shenzhou V -- "divine ship" in Chinese -- carried a single "taikonaut" named Yang Liwei, 38, following a trail blazed by Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin and American Alan Shepard in 1961.

The Shenzhou mission, if successful, will make China the third nation to send a man into outer space, following the former Soviet Union and the United States.

"The rocket that will launch the Shenzhou V spaceship is the best of all. It is of superior quality and has stood our most stringent testing," the official China Daily quoted Huang Chunping, commander-in-chief of rocket systems, as saying.

"With the application of 55 breakthrough technologies, including fault-detection and escape systems, the spacecraft and rocket both have reached advanced international levels." 
President Hu Jintao and his predecessor, Jiang Zemin were expected to have been at the launch center to watch China's bid to realize a dream.

Yang, a lieutenant colonel in the People's Liberation Army selected from a pool of 14, is the son of a teacher and an official at an agricultural firm. He was raised in Suizhong county in the northeast province of Liaoning.

"We are proud of him," his brother-in-law said just minutes before the launch. "We don't worry about his safety because we trust the nation's advanced technology."

The rocket was to orbit the Earth 14 times before returning after about 21 hours. Yang would dine on shredded pork with garlic and kung pao chicken washed down with Chinese tea.