CHINA on October 15 became only the third nation to send a man into orbit when Shenzhou V blasted off into the clear skies over the Gobi Desert launchpad.

Here is a short chronology of some of the most notable manned space flights and disasters:

March 23, 1961 - Valentin Bondarenko of the Soviet Air Force was the first astronaut to die in manned space exploration. He was killed while training in a ground-based spacecraft simulator. Fire broke out in the capsule, which was filled with a pure oxygen atmosphere, and he was unable to escape. Bondarenko died 10 hours later.

Apr 12, 1961 - Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first person to orbit the Earth and land safely.

May 5, 1961 - Alan Shepard, the first American to fly in space, takes a 15-minute flight in the Mercury capsule Freedom 7.

Feb 20, 1962 - John Glenn, the first American to reach Earth orbit, circles the planet three times in the Mercury capsule Friendship 7.

June 16, 1963 - Valentina Tereshkova becomes the first woman in space.

October 31, 1964 - Theodore Freeman dies during a routine flight aboard one of NASA's T-38 jet trainers. He was preparing to land near Houston when a snow goose struck the left side of the cockpit canopy. Shattered plexiglass entered both engines forcing Freeman to eject. However, his altitude was too low and the parachute had insufficient time to open fully.

June 3-7, 1965 - Ed White accomplishes the first US spacewalk on Gemini 4.

January 21, 1967 - Gus Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee were assigned as the primary crew of Apollo 1. On January 27, the three were sealed in the Apollo 1 capsule on the launch pad to perform pre-flight tests. A spark caused by faulty wiring erupted into a blaze that swept through the pure oxygen atmosphere within the capsule. Unable to open the escape hatch, all three were killed.

April 1967 - Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Mikhailovich Komarov is first man to die on a space mission when parachutes on his capsule fail to open on re-entry and the ship crashes to Earth.

July 20, 1969 - Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin spend 22 hours on the lunar surface during Apollo 11, the first piloted mission to the moon.

April 11-17, 1970 - James Lovell, John Swigert and Fred Haise survive an oxygen tank explosion and return to Earth without reaching the moon on Apollo 13.

June 1971 - Three Soviet cosmonauts die during re-entry after 24 days in an orbiting space laboratory, a record endurance flight at that time.

July 15-24, 1975 - Americans Thomas Stafford, Donald Slayton and Vance Brand shake hands in space with Russians Alexei Leonov and Valery Kubasov after their Apollo and Soyuz capsules complete the first orbital docking of two spacecraft from different nations.

April 12-14, 1981 - John Young and Robert Crippen orbit the Earth in the world's first reusable spaceship, the shuttle Columbia.

June 18-24, 1983 - Sally Ride becomes the first American woman to fly in space, aboard the shuttle Challenger.

January 28, 1986 - Seven US astronauts, including a schoolteacher, die aboard the Challenger space shuttle 72 seconds after lift-off from Cape Canaveral. A gas leak in the right booster rocket was blamed for the Challenger catastrophe.

Feb 3-11, 1994 - Sergei Krikalev becomes the first Russian cosmonaut to fly aboard a space shuttle.

February 1, 2003 - The space shuttle Columbia, carrying seven astronauts including the first from Israel, breaks up over Texas on re-entering atmosphere at end of 16-day flight.

The tragedy happened when the incredible heat that is generated by atmospheric friction entered the interior of the left wing, causing it to melt from within until it failed and broke free. When this occurred the shuttle spun out of control and exploded. (Star-Agencies)