"An indicator for the initial victory of the country's first crewed space flight and for an historic step taken by the Chinese people in their endeavor to surmount the peak of the world's science and technology." - General Secretary and President Hu Jintao of China on the country's first human spaceflight. Shenzhou 5 made China the third and most recent country to gain the ability to launch people into space. The flight carried a single Chinese taikonaut and lasted for 21 hours. It validated the Shenzhou craft's ability to keep a crew safe and paved the way for longer missions of China's human spaceflight program.