This month, mainland scientists will try a new and improved mission to send a man into space, launching the Shenzhou No 5 spacecraft atop a Long March 2-F rocket from the Jiuquan space centre in Gansu province. China will be the third nation to put a man into space, behind Russia and the United States.

For scientists, Shenzhou 5 evokes tremendous pride and patriotism. The project has been a work in progress since the People's Republic was founded in 1949.

If successful, China will immediately accelerate plans to launch a space station, a moon probe by 2005, land a man on the moon by 2020 and establish a base on the moon and Mars in the decades after that.

'We are still behind the west, but we are not that behind,' said Liang Sili, a US-trained engineer who helped design China's first intercontinental ballistic missile system in the 1960s and 1970s.

The government has been vague on the exact date of the launch, fearing that too much publicity would stoke anticipation and lead to crushing humiliation if it failed. It has been equally secretive of other mission details.

State-controlled media have been told to play down the publicity, at least until the spacecraft is successfully launched.

The vessel is modelled after the Soviet Soyuz spacecraft.

Mindful of safety - especially after the US space shuttle Columbia catastrophe - Chinese scientists approached Russians for advice on improving their escape module. But in an interview with the People's Daily this year, space programme commander-in-chief Huang Chunping said that after the Russians demanded US$10 million for their advice, the Chinese decided to solve the problem on our own.

Mr Huang admitted to the People's Daily that he was nervous about the launch, which is only the fifth time he and his crew have tested a Shenzhou spacecraft. By comparison, the Russians or Americans averaged more than a dozen launches before they sent up their first manned missions.

'I feel enormous pressure on my shoulders,' he said. 'We only had four previous launches and it's insufficient from a scientific point of view.'

Mr Huang said the exact date of the launch had not been fixed, and a lot depended on weather conditions.

A lot of national pride is riding on the success of the mission.

Guan Anping, a former aide to Vice-Premier Wu Yi and managing director of Anping & Partners - one of Beijing's largest commercial law firms - said: 'China's economy is much stronger than it was at the beginning of economic reform. There are still many poor people and a long way to go, but by becoming the third nation able to put a man in space, China further solidifies itself as a global player.

'With economic development you must have scientific development and launching into space is a key part of our progress.'

Officials also have been secretive over the cost of the programme, insisting that only 19 billion yuan (HK$17.8 billion) has been spent on the manned programme since 1992. However, western scientists believe the real figure may be many times higher.

Not everyone supports the idea of putting a man in space.

Li Jiaming, a Shanghai entrepreneur, said: 'I'd rather they spend the money elsewhere, such as upgrading the nation's poor health system. Even in the US they are rolling the space programme back. All of this has to do with raising ... prestige and getting the country unified on a patriotic campaign than a real commercial payoff.'

Mr Li said the nation should instead focus on the broader social-welfare needs of its 800 million peasants.

Most scientists have kept their objections low-key, and the only exceptions have been Wang Xiji, who designed China's first recoverable satellites, and Hu Wenrui of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. They have published articles saying China should just focus on manned space missions and not aspire to building stations on the moon or on Mars because they would be a 'scientific waste'.

Ballistic missile programme pioneer Mr Liang, who remains a senior adviser to the government and is a member of the International Academy of Astronauts, said critics were too harsh. 'Many people, including people in China, criticise us for spending money,' he said. A few years ago they calculated that 'total investment was less than that of money invested in a major state-owned enterprise like Shanghai's Baogang Steel'.

'Compared to the US, our investment is very small,' said Mr Li. That said, Mr Liang said he strongly believed that the payoffs from Shenzhou 5 and the space programme in general could not be measured in terms of money.

'Shenzhen 5 demonstrates China's economic, political and cultural aspirations,' he said. 'Its launch will unite Chinese all over the world. It will make us all feel proud to be Chinese.'