Tens of thousands of young Chinese professionals working for China's manned space project are becoming experienced and increasingly important for the country's future in the space sector, senior space experts say.

Qi Faren, 70, chief designer of China's spacecraft, said a group of well-educated young professionals with good managerial skills were trained during the development of the vessel, which is more valuable than the successful manned space mission itself.

China's first astronaut Yang Liwei returned to the Earth on Oct.16 after orbiting the planet 14 times in 21 hours, making China the third country capable of independently putting a person into space.

Space officials and experts say thousands of young professionals tempered in the 11-year-old project are an important human resource for China's future space endeavors.

About 80 percent of the engineers and technicians working for the space project are under 40, with some even under 30.

Liu Feng, 27, is the commander of the error inspection system for the carrier rocket for the project while Qin Wenbo, vice-chief designer of the spacecraft system, is only 37 years old.

The stars include rocket expert Zhang Qingwei, 42, deputy chief commander of the space project; Yuan Jiajun, 41, chief commander of the spacecraft system and president of the China Academy of Space Technology; and rocket expert Wu Yansheng, 39, president of the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology.

At the age of 40, Zhang Qingwei was appointed in 2001 general manager of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, which has 103,000 employees, and develops, among other things, the launch vehicle and spacecraft.

Zhang said two thirds of the 10,000 engineers and technicians in the corporation are young people.

"It was one of the objectives of the manned space program that the Chinese government set in 1992 to train a large group of young space engineers and technicians," said Zhang.

Wang Yongzhi, chief designer of China's manned space project, said the emergence of young space specialists in large numbers indicates the country's space program has a prosperous future.

According to China's manned space plan approved in 1992 by the Chinese government, China will set up a space laboratory and then a space station in the future.

(Xinhua News Agency October 28, 2003)