China heads into space.

• Position: Soundbites - Brief Article

'Just as England went to North America and made it British, China needs to stake its claim in space.

--Xu Shijie, a Chinese spacecraft designer, on the importance of China's first manned spacecraft, successfully launched on Oct. 15. (Time, Oct. 20)

'A lot of people are saying, 'Been there, done that.',

--Roger Launius, former chief historian for NASA. The launch of the Chinese spacecraft took place more than 40 years after the Soviet Union and the U.S. first put men into space. (The New York Times, Oct...