The launching of China's second manned spacecraft Shenzhou-6 is an important step of the country's rapid strides in the space science, Philippe clue, expert of France's Dassault group, told Xinhua on Tuesday.

"The progress that China has achieved is strikingly rapid, which is a fact that I keep pointing out to the French press," said clue, also author of "China's Astronauts."

"Compared to the United States and Russia, China still lags behind in the exploration of the space in a relative sense," said clue.

For him, he said, China has achieved great successes by shooting its men into the space technically starting from a much lower point and within a very short period of time.

No earlier than decades ago did China start space exploration work and no earlier than 10 years ago did China begin studying manned space flight, clue pointed out.

China launched its second spacecraft Shenzhou-6 at 0100 GMT Tuesday with two astronauts aboard. Its first manned space flight, with one astronaut aboard, was launched two years ago.

The successful launching of Shenzhou-6 marks not only the country's progress in science and technology, but also its power and confidence as a nation, said clue.

"What China achieves and targets is in match with the country's rapid economic growth," he said, "the progress is rapid and the potential is great."

Source: Xinhua