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Chickens Hatch Aboard Chinese Space Module

Posted by timothy on from the tastes-like-�� dept.

Buzx writes: "It seems China is closing in on her goal of joining the small club of space-faring nations. Three chickens hatched aboard a Shenzhou space module after seven days in orbit. This reminds me of the U.S.'s experiments with monkeys (anyone remember Ham?) and the USSR's space dog, Laika."

8 of 21 comments (clear)

  1. Competition is good ... by jkujawa · · Score: 2

    With any luck, this will trigger a new space race.
    The US has become far too complacent, and Russia is pretty broken right now. New competition may mean that we'll actually get off this rock before it gets hit by an asteroid or something.

  2. eggcellent! by Prowl · · Score: 3, Funny

    Did they carry out any Eggstra Vehicular Activities?

    --
    That man tried to kill mah Daddy
  3. only 3 hatches out of 9 eggs by !splut · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It seems that China sent up 9 chicken eggs, but only three hatched. And of course, as is China's want, they are keeping ominously quiet about what became of the other 6 eggs. I get kind of annoyed about their tendency to never admit their failures, no matter how minor, unless someone else breaks the story first and they need to do some damage control.

    They're using the survival of the eggs to tout their life support system. But for all we know those other eggs came back scrambled, or horribly mutated into monster chickens. If they want the rest of the global community to be impressed with their space program, they ought to be a little more forthcoming with their data, success or failure.

    --
    The angel in the oatmeal.
    1. Re:only 3 hatches out of 9 eggs by Dolohov · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Most chicken eggs do not hatch into chickens (This is the origin of the advice, "don't count your chickens before they hatch"). Further, there's no guarantee that they'd hatch at all, given the G-forces of launch. Racism aside, this is an honest acheivement for a country making its first steps into space.

  4. This is legit. by blair1q · · Score: 2

    NASA used pigs to test dry-land touchdown: Mercury Pig Capsule

    --Blair

    1. Re:This is legit. by Rorschach1 · · Score: 2

      But we still haven't had any...

      PIGS... IN... SPAAAAAAAAAACE!

      (insert obligatory rant about lame lameness filter here)

  5. More info from media with China by AtomicBomb · · Score: 3, Informative
    Some more interesting info from media within China:
    • That native species of chicken is called "black chicken", light coloured feather, black skin, ordinary colored flesh.
    • This type of chicken was selected due to two reason:
      1. genetically stable and well-studied in China
      2. The eggs are smaller, so that they can fit more to the container.
    • They do mention the failure ones and are quite happy with the 3 out of 9 hatches.

  6. Re:space food farm by Rorschach1 · · Score: 2

    Actually, if you let the chickens roam free and eat bugs and stuff, they taste a lot different than the store-bought ones. As for the bones, you'll just need to breed special boneless chickens.