Beijing (AP): One of China's biggest heroes and the first Chinese astronaut to fly into space has been promoted to general, the government said on Tuesday.

Yang Liwei has been a star in China since he orbited Earth for 21.5 hours in 2003 aboard the Shenzhou 5 spacecraft, making China only the third country after the former Soviet Union and the United States to launch a person into space.

``On July 22, the General Armament Department of People's Liberation Army held a promotion ceremony in which China's aerospace hero Yang Liwei was promoted to the military rank of major general,'' an announcement on a government Web site said.

China has ambitious space plans, and the country's space program is an immense source of national pride.

China has a spacewalk scheduled for the second half of 2008 _ when Chinese astronauts will leave their spacecraft for the first time. The official Xinhua News Agency reported earlier this year that the spacewalk would be broadcast live.

China also sent an unmanned space ship to orbit the moon last year, the first step in a three-stage lunar exploration project. A manned lunar voyage is planned for some time after 2017.