The first Shenzhou capsule lifts off atop a Long March rocket last November.

China is poised to launch the second test flight of its Shenzhou spacecraft -- an orbiter capable of carrying an astronaut into space -- a Chinese official said Thursday in his year-end press briefing.

Speaking with reporters at the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C., press spokesman Zhang Yuanyuan said that while his country has not announced when it plans a second test orbit of an empty Shenzhou, the occasion "would not be too far in the future."

China first tested its astronaut-capable capsule in November, 1999, but announced the flight only after the pilotless craft had successfully returned to Earth following 14 orbits and some 21 hours in space. The same secrecy would likely shroud subsequent tests. Official sources have said China will not put a pilot aboard the spaceship until capsules, launch vehicles and landing systems have been successfully tested several times, but they have vowed to make history as the third nation with a manned space program by 2005.

Asked why China is pursuing the goal, Zhang said sending astronauts into space is a natural and important step in the advancement of any space program. Considering that the nation put its first satellite in orbit in 1970, Zhang said, "I think it is a little bit overdue to put a manned space program on the agenda, and that is what we are planning to do."

The Soviet Union and the United States -- the only countries so far to launch humans into space -- each did so in the early 1960s, within four years of launching unmanned satellites.

China's ambitious plans for humans in space even include a trip to the moon. Chinese scientists have begun talking about a permanent base on the moon in just over a decade, and China proudly displayed a model of a Chinese lunar mission as the central exhibit in its pavillion at the 2000 World Exposition in Hannover, Germany. The model shows two astronauts near their four-wheeling rover planting a Chinese flag in the lunar soil.

In his comments Zhang emphasized China's opposition to the militarization of space. He said China's manned space program has no military objective and that space should be reserved for purely peaceful activities.