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China's first astronaut returned safely to Earth on Thursday when his craft touched down on time and as planned after 21 hours in orbit. Beijing's mission control declared the country's landmark debut flight "a success."

The craft carrying Lt. Col. Yang Liwei landed by parachute on the grasslands of Inner Mongolia in northern China at dawn Thursday, the official Xinhua News Agency said. Minutes later, he grabbed the capsule hatch with his hand, pulled himself out and waved at rescuers.

"The spaceship operated well," Yang later said, according to Xinhua. "I feel very good and I am proud of my motherland."

Within hours, Zhang Qingwei, the space program's No. 2 official, announced through Xinhua that China's space dreams would continue with plans for a space lab and a space station serviced by Shenzhou capsules.

Shenzhou 5 landed at 6:23 a.m., the government said. Less than two hours later, he was in a helicopter en route to Beijing, the state broadcaster China Central Television reported.

Li Jinai, the head of China's manned space program, called Yang a "space hero."

The completed mission was the crowning achievement of an 11-year, military-linked manned space program promoted as a symbol of national prestige both at home and abroad. China's premier, Wen Jiabao, immediately spoke to Yang from Beijing and offered his congratulations.

"Great Leap Skyward," the state-controlled newspaper China Daily enthused Thursday morning.

Yang, a 38-year-old former fighter pilot, landed three miles from his target, the government said.

The flight came four decades after the former Soviet Union and the United States pioneered manned spaceflight. Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin orbited the Earth in 1961. Less than one month later, the United States launched Alan B. Shepard Jr.

Shenzhou 5 orbited the Earth 14 times. Though the government has been secretive about its space program, it offered frequent glimpses of Yang during the trip.

The Beijing Aerospace Command and Control Center sent a message at about 5:35 a.m. Thursday to Shenzhou 5 instructing it to return as planned, Xinhua said. Shown on a screen in the mission control center, the capsule made a gentle turnaround upon receiving the order, according to the official news agency.

After the landing, helicopters and trucks rushed to retrieve Yang. Reports had said he would be armed with knives and possibly a gun to protect himself against animals and other threats in the Inner Mongolian grasslands where the ship was to touch down.

The mission began when the rocket carrying Yang streaked into a clear blue sky from a Gobi Desert launch pad in China's remote northwest.

CCTV's flagship channel broke into its programming to announce the liftoff, and 28 minutes later it broadcast the first gripping scenes of the rocket blasting off. It ran stirring music that was strikingly similar to both the "Star Wars" and "Superman" themes.

Yang hurtled around the planet for the rest of Wednesday, making a planned orbit shift in mid-afternoon and stopping work only to rest and eat Chinese food designed especially for space travel.

With his mission nearly half over, he spoke to ground control and his boss. "Don't worry — I'm going to work hard to accomplish the task," he told Defense Minister Cao Gangchuan.

Later, Yang spoke to his wife and their 8-year-old son from space, Xinhua reported. "I'm feeling very good in space, and it looks extremely splendid around here," he told his wife, Zhang Yumei, who also works for China's space program. And he said hello to his "dear son."

Yang also unfurled two flags for ground control to see — China's and the United Nations' — to "highlight China's persistent stand for peaceful exploration and exploitation of space," the government said.

Chinese President Hu Jintao, at the launch base for the Shenzhou liftoff, called it "the glory of our great motherland."

"You carry the dreams of our nation into space with you," Hu told Yang before the launch. The taikonaut (TYE'-koh-nawt) replied, "Thanks to you, and thanks to the people, for putting confidence in me."

Taikonaut is an English nickname based on the Chinese word for space, "taikong."

China's leaders long ago replaced their leftist ideology with sweeping economic reform, and resort instead to flag-waving nationalistic appeals to bind their nation together.

Even before the safe landing, congratulations poured in from abroad.

"It seems we have a new rival," said Hiroshi Inoue, a spokesman for Japan's space agency. "But since this is not a war, China is not a threat. This could be beneficial to the space development technology for the rest of the world."

NASA, whose space shuttle Columbia was lost in February, called it "an important achievement in the history of human exploration."

"The Chinese people have a long and distinguished history of exploration," said NASA administrator Sean O'Keefe. He wished China "a continued safe human space flight program."

Aboard the international space station, American astronaut Edward Lu, whose parents were born in China, spoke in Chinese as he addressed these wishes to Yang: "Welcome to space" and "Have a safe journey and I wish you success."

His colleague, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko, told Mission Control in Houston: "I am glad to have somebody else in space instead of me and Ed. Also, I know it was great work by thousands and thousands of people from China."

In Baikonur, Kazakhstan, where the Soviet Union pioneered manned spaceflight, the first deputy head of the Russian space agency said his staffers "simply welcome the event and are happy for them." But Nikolai Moiseyev noted Russia's involvement, too.

"Often, we are asked, 'Did Russia nourish the Chinese cosmonauts?' I have to say that Russia has fed all the world's space programs," Moiseyev said.

The Shenzhou, or "Divine Vessel," is based on the three-seat Russian Soyuz capsule, though with extensive modifications.

Yang, an astronaut since 1998, was picked for the flight from three finalists. They trained for years, and the field was narrowed from 14 in recent weeks. His trip came after four test flights, beginning in 1999, of unmanned Shenzhou capsules.

China has had a rocketry program since the 1950s. It launched a manned space program in the 1970s amid the political upheaval of the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution but later abandoned it. The program was relaunched in 1992 under the code name Project 921.

The budget for the program is secret, but foreign experts say it totals at least $1 billion — a major commitment for China, where the average person makes $700 a year.

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