China in Space

[Reno]

China counts down to second manned space flight
Tue Oct 11, 2005 12:55 AM ET

BEIJING (Reuters) - China is counting down to a manned space launch expected on Wednesday, aiming to become only the third member of an exclusive club of countries that have twice put a man into Earth orbit.

The Shenzhou VI would blast off in northwest China "at a proper time" between October 12 and 15, China's Xinhua news agency said, citing an official with the national space program.

But a source told Reuters that the spacecraft would blast off on Wednesday, a day after the Communist Party ends a major meeting in Beijing devoted to mapping out economic and social development.

State television will cover the launch live two years after China's first manned space mission. Colonel Yang Liwei orbited Earth 14 times on the Shenzhou V craft in October 2003.

Showing how far China has to go to catch up space powers Russia and the United States, a Russian capsule carrying a cosmonaut, a U.S. astronaut and an American space tourist returned to Earth on Tuesday from the International Space Station.

Russia, then the Soviet Union, and the United States put their first men into space in 1961.

Xinhua said China's spacecraft, with two astronauts aboard, would blast off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Gansu province and touch down in the remote northern region of Inner Mongolia.

The People's Daily Web site showed pictures of a man in a space suit being helped out of a capsule at the Jiuquan center. It did not identify him.

But the weather could cause delays. The semi-official China News Service said a cold front was likely to blast most of western China with strong winds.

The next two Chinese to blast into space were selected after a rigorous screening process that started with 14 former fighter pilots, but their identities had been kept a strict secret, Xinhua said.

"China will never be a superpower, but as the world's biggest developing country with 1.3 billion people, it should have a place in aerospace development and make due contributions," Wang Yongzhi, chief designer of the national manned spaceflight program, was quoted as saying.

Analysts said China's second launch marked an important step in the development of its space program.

"This flight is a necessary and notable step on their way to the stars," said Anthony Curtis, editor of the online magazine Space Today and a professor at the University of North Carolina.

"China is making incremental advances while progressing cautiously. Each flight is, and will be, somewhat more ambitious than the previous."

RUSSIAN DESIGN
The Shenzhou capsules are based on Russia's Soyuz spacecraft, a model developed in the late 1960s and still in service.

The expanded Shenzhou VI included a second compartment that would serve as the crew's living quarters and a site for doing experiments, China Newsweek said.

Xinhua previously said sperm from two select pigs would be taken into space and brought back for analysis. But the China Daily said on Tuesday the spacecraft would not carry any plant seeds, as previously reported, and that experiments would be focused on "human activities".

China has come a long way since then paramount leader Mao Zedong lamented in 1957 -- the year the Soviet Union put the first ever man-made object into orbit -- that the country was incapable even of putting a potato into space.

China launched its first satellite in April 1970 aboard a Long March rocket, which orbited Earth blasting the Cultural Revolution anthem, "The East is Red". Since then industry analysts estimate it has launched over 50 satellites.

Wang said that in further manned missions, China planned to conduct spacewalks, dock a capsule with a space module and put a permanent space laboratory into orbit.

Link: http://today.reuters.com/news/NewsA...KOC_0_US-SPACE-CHINA.xml&pageNumber=0&summit=

Note: The article is on two separate pages.

 

[Winner]

Well, it isn't very important. They can send a man to space. So what?

 

[plarq]

Well, it isn't very important. They can send a man to space. So what?

So my (and our) tax yuan is wasted on another vanity projects and another reason for not paying taxes. What annoys me most is that folks are so happy about the "pride" and forget the inability of our space flight department.

We've done a good job on rocket and satellite technology, but I have to say these manned space ships are just way too luxurious for our nation. No military usage and no contribution to space research since we can't support a real NASA.It's all for the darn pride, and deprivation of our wealth.

 

[Abaddon]

"aiming to become only the third member of an exclusive club of countries that have twice put a man into Earth orbit"

How many countrys have only done it once!?!?!

 

[Che Guava]

Just saw this on Google news...

China's reach for the stars
By Daniel Griffiths
BBC News, Beijing

China's second manned space mission is just the latest stage in what is becoming an increasingly ambitious project that may one day see a Chinese astronaut on the moon.

Three Chinese astronauts Nie Haisheng, left, Yang Liwei, centre, and Zhai Zhigang, Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2003 file photo
China's space programme is a matter of national prestige

In 2003, China became only the third country to put a human into space on its own, after the former Soviet Union and the United States.

The astronaut then was a former fighter pilot, Yang Liwei. He was given a hero's welcome on his return to earth - meeting national leaders and touring the nation.

But China has not stopped there. This latest flight is set to be longer and more complicated than the first one. This time there are two astronauts who are expected to be in space for five days. They are going to carry out experiments as well as move freely about the spacecraft.

China's booming economy may make it the world's next economic giant - now it wants the other trappings of superstar status as well

If this trip is successful, China has much larger goals. More manned missions are likely to follow. National space officials say they want to land an unmanned probe on the moon by 2010, and also build a space station.

In the longer term there are plans to put an astronaut on the moon, although the time-frame for that happening is still unclear.

China has had a rocket programme since the 1950s and has been launching satellites into space for more than 30 years.

It relies mainly on modified Russian technology, although Beijing says that everything sent into space is made in China.

The manned space missions are all launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre, located on the edge of the Gobi desert, in the north-west of the country.

The nation's spending on its space program is a state secret, but by international standards it is thought to be much smaller than American expenditure.

Why the rush?

China has many reasons for pressing ahead with its space programme. The first is boosting national pride.

The number of visitors going to space exhibitions in major Chinese cities suggests there is considerable public support for the initiative.

The programme appeals to nationalist sentiment, helping the Communist Party shore up its standing amid widespread frustration over official corruption and the growing economic divide between rich and poor.

So Chinese state television is likely to carry much of the mission live, and just as Yang Liwei was feted on his return to earth, so the latest two astronauts will also be treated like heroes after they touch down.

The country's top leaders also view the space programme as an important source of international prestige.

China's booming economy may make it the world's next economic giant - now it wants the other trappings of superstar status as well.

Beijing feels that a space programme with the capability of putting a human into orbit, and perhaps onto the moon, will help put it in the same league as the US and the former Soviet Union.

And then there are the commercial and military applications, such as satellite-based navigational systems, although other technological benefits from the space initiative are still a long way in the future.

This year, China is commemorating the 600th anniversary of the voyages of the legendary Chinese admiral, Zheng He, who explored the Pacific and Indian Oceans nearly 100 years before Christopher Columbus sailed the Atlantic.

Now six centuries on it has a new generation of explorers to celebrate - China's astronauts.

It's amazing to me that China might be building a space station so soon! It also makes me a little uneasy...I know I don't want 'western' nations to have exclusive access to the moon/space, but something about this new space race (I think India is working on a space programme, as well as Japan) makes me feel a little chilly when I look upwards. Is space going to be the new battleground for the 21st century?

 

[Dann]

Is space going to be the new battleground for the 21st century?

It has already been so for decades, only not that obvious, and with the US enjoying a very big lead. China is a latecomer here.

 

[Tank_Guy#3]

You're welcome for the help China, we helped their space program because it is cheaper for the United States to launch rockets there than in America. You are also welcome for the IC part of the ICBM.

America: We put the Intercontinental in China's Ballistic Missile.

 

[Masquerouge]

Go China !

The more countries in space the better.

 

[Che Guava]

It has already been so for decades, only not that obvious, and with the US enjoying a very big lead. China is a latecomer here.

I guess that's true, the cold war was as much about dominating the sky as the earth. I guess I'm just worried about the first real "Star War" we'll have. So far it's all been preparation...

 

[marshal zhukov]

Go China !

The more countries in space the better.

I totally agree, that's why I respected the USSR , because they took space exploration very seriously. Building MIR, satellites, new rocket engines and forcing the US to go along so that they wouldn't stay behind or so that they would stay ahead, whichever you prefer.
I hope that China fills up the place left but the USSR in space exploration as soon as possible.

 

[Che Guava]

I totally agree, that's why I respected the USSR , because they took space exploration very seriously [...] I hope that China fills up the place left but the USSR in space exploration as soon as possible.

I just admired the ethic that went into the Soviet space plan. From what I know (as described to me by friends whoactaully know about rocket science!), when the americans first started designing shuttles/rockets/etc, they went for finesse: every system was perfected in every possible way before it was added, and almost everything was scrapped after each mission to make sure the next mission would have the most up to date systems availible. The russians, on the other hand, used simple systems and solved problems with simple answers (need more thrust? Add more boosters rockets!). Result? At the end of the cold war, the US had managed to surpasse the USSR in electronics and robotics, but the russians still dominated rocket technology!

 

[Winner]

Oh please, what's the big deal? So they can send a man to space. OK. So what? Their technology is decades behind that of the US or Russia or Europe or Japan.

 

[general_kill]

winner, so the fact that an overpopulated, "communist", "technologically backward (behind as your would say)" country managed to surpass not only your country, but every member of the european union is no big deal? europe is more technologically advanced and yet a chinese floated in his spaceship before you guys did. i suggest u downplay how much better japan and europe is. but you can still boast about us some more.

anyway, even though there is something distant about everything china is doing, i do support their peaceful space program. we need more competition in space so mankind can expand its boundries even more.

 

[Bluemofia]

W00t! Maybe this will stimulate the US's space program with competition in another space race, and then all will be better in the long run. I would seriously like a colony on at least the moon in my lifetime.

 

[Winner]

winner, so the fact that an overpopulated, "communist",

Never said it was communist...

"technologically backward (behind as your would say)" country managed to surpass not only your country, but every member of the european union is no big deal? europe is more technologically advanced and yet a chinese floated in his spaceship before you guys did.

So typically American The fact they can send a man to space in an obsolete spaceship of stolen russian design means nothing. Europe could do that any time, but it would be a huge waste of resources that can be used for scientific research. Instead, we cooperate with the Russians on a joint spacecraft.

i suggest u downplay how much better japan and europe is. but you can still boast about us some more.

I just say the level of chinese space technology doesn't match the Europe or Japan. The very fact these two don't waste their money on a senseless propagandist human spaceflight doesn't mean they can't do it. They just have a different priorities.

anyway, even though there is something distant about everything china is doing, i do support their peaceful space program. we need more competition in space so mankind can expand its boundries even more.

You think China is doing all this only with the most peaceful intentions? Please, don't be naive

 

[A'AbarachAmadan]

I just admired the ethic that went into the Soviet space plan. From what I know (as described to me by friends whoactaully know about rocket science!), when the americans first started designing shuttles/rockets/etc, they went for finesse: every system was perfected in every possible way before it was added, and almost everything was scrapped after each mission to make sure the next mission would have the most up to date systems availible. The russians, on the other hand, used simple systems and solved problems with simple answers (need more thrust? Add more boosters rockets!). Result? At the end of the cold war, the US had managed to surpasse the USSR in electronics and robotics, but the russians still dominated rocket technology!

I have to agree. For example, regular pens don't work in anti-gravity because the ink won't flow.

US solution: $M developing a pen that will write in space.
USSR solution: A pencil.

 

[blackheart]

I have to agree. For example, regular pens don't work in anti-gravity because the ink won't flow.

US solution: $M developing a pen that will write in space.
USSR solution: A pencil.

Common misconception. The government never funded any such research. It was a private firm that did it, and then sold the pens to both the USA and USSR.

 

[Dominus Romae]

China in Space means US competition. This way space exploration is going to live again, and our borders will expand. NASA budget will increase.

 

[Neonanocyborgasm]

It's amazing to me that China might be building a space station so soon! It also makes me a little uneasy...I know I don't want 'western' nations to have exclusive access to the moon/space, but something about this new space race (I think India is working on a space programme, as well as Japan) makes me feel a little chilly when I look upwards. Is space going to be the new battleground for the 21st century?

I'm not particularly worried. China's technology is just catching up to that of the US of the early 1960's. Let them launch their astronauts. I'm of the opinion that the US space program has run off-target, so maybe if the Chinese make any innovations, it'll spur NASA to do something more than kill a few more astronauts.

 

[Marla_Singer]

The European space programme is the one of the most profitable space program and this for a simple reason : it focuses on business.

For good or bad reasons, Europeans are not ready to blindly spend billions simply to send by themselves people in space. If it's about seeing fellow citizens smiling in weightlessness, it's cheaper to send them in Baikonur.

The crucial thing American dudes must understand is that the "E.U" is seen as a foreign thing by all Europeans. As such, any euro cent given to the EU is considered as a donation to the "foreign world". That's why the CAP is so unpopular in Europe when Americans or Japanese don't care of it. And that's why ANY activities supported by the EU must be profitable.

And I'm sure that despite Arianespace being a profitable business, there are tons of Europeans believing "we should stop to waste my tax money in that useless foreign crap".


EDIT : Actually, people, I think that I'm not believing in Europe anymore.