China is expected to launch its second manned space mission this week from a remote desert region, swelling national pride and leaving many foreign observers in awe at what the country has achieved, AFP reported Monday.

"The Chinese should be very proud of what they are accomplishing," said David Baker, a London-based space policy analyst for Jane's Defence Weekly.

"It's the kind of activity that only a developed and well-organized industrial nation can pull off."

At some point in the coming days, Shenzhou VI will lift off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on the edge of the Gobi desert, although a final launch time remains shrouded in secrecy and is probably subject to weather conditions.

An official involved in the launch told AFP Monday the spacecraft would take off from a remote desert region in Inner Mongolia at 9 am (0100 GMT) on Wednesday.

"It is October 12 at 9 am," said the official from the technical department of the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center who refused to be named or comment further.

The China National Space Administration said it could not confirm the date, which has been shrouded in secrecy.

"It is up to the people at the scene. Only they can decide the date and the time," said a spokeswoman at the international affairs department.

China's press reported that Zhai Zhigang and Nie Haisheng would likely pilot the five-day mission, which will return to earth in the grasslands of Inner Mongolia.

It will be almost exactly two years after the successful October 15, 2003 launch of astronaut Yang Liwei into space, making China only the third nation after the United States and the former Soviet Union to accomplish such a feat.

While the Shenzhou technology is based on 1950s and 1960s Soviet science, observers said it would be wrong to shrug off China's space program.

It is evidence not just of technical prowess but also of managerial and organizational skill, they argued.

"If it was easy, China wouldn't be the third country with a manned program," said Joan Johnson-Freese, an expert on Chinas space program at the US Naval War College.

"The technology isn't exactly breakthrough technology, but being able to put it all together and make it work, is sending a message that in fact China has integration skills, it has follow-through capability to build this kind of technology."

The Shenzhou spacecraft, based on the robust and thoroughly tested Soviet design for the Soyuz vessel, is basically the same this time as two years ago.

It consists of three modules, the orbital module where scientific experiments are carried out, the re-entry capsule where the astronauts will spend most of their time, and the service module, which contains fuel and air, solar panels and other technical gear.

During his 21-hour trip to space in 2003, Yang never left the re-entry capsule, but this time will be different.

The two astronauts will enter into the orbital module in the front to conduct a large number of tests, many of them presumably designed to check their physical reactions to conditions in space.

"This is very, very typical of the Chinese space program," said Brian Harvey, the Dublin-based author of a book on China's space endeavors. "They go quite a big step each time. They very rarely repeat missions."

The data collected will be used for what is China's objective for the medium term: a space station to promote cutting-edge scientific research in orbit and boost national pride on the ground.

China's spending on its space program is a state secret, but what is clear is that by international standards it is a mere shoestring budget.

Harvey believes it is around six billion dollars -- or approximately one sixth of the American expenditure.

Still, the question posed by many, including international donors of economic aid to China, is why Beijing is pushing on with its space program at all.

"The answer really lies in prestige first, direct economic and social applications second, and using the space program as a cutting-edge tool for technology third," said Harvey.

Among the less acknowledged benefits of the space program, many Chinese buses are now guided around by satellite-based navigation systems.

And the stream of visitors crowding into space exhibitions in major Chinese cities suggests the program has triggered a new interest in science and technology.

But befitting a country proud to tout its 5,000-year history, China is not going into space just for short-term considerations.

"Much more than America, much more than Europe, China really does look at the very, very long-term view," said Baker of Jane's Defence Weekly.

"And it does see that in this century, and it may take the whole of this century, it wants to end up having options to exploit if there is a commercial purpose to mining lunar materials for instance."