China Plans Manned Space Flight October 15

epmos writes "As previously reported on /., China is working toward launching a manned space flight Real Soon Now(tm). Many news sites have stories suggesting it could be as soon as a week away. The flight is expected to last about 90 minutes and complete one orbit." According to some of these stories, though, there's speculation about the flight lasting up to 24 hours.

Comments

A scary concept

[nurb432]

Great, a repressive country that hates the entire planet, has nuclear weapons, is mentally unstable, and now can send people into orbit.

The safety of the world just went down a few notches.. ( or at least will next week )

Before anyone praises China...

[gz718]

Read the latest human rights report on them. They are the most repressive country on the planet. Highlights:

• Citizens lacked both the freedom to peacefully express opposition to the party-led political system and the right to change their national leaders or form of government.
• Instances of extrajudicial killings, torture and mistreatment of prisoners, forced confessions, arbitrary arrest and detention, lengthy incommunicado detention, and denial of due process.
• Severely restricted freedom of assembly and continued to restrict freedom of association and freedom of movement.
• Religious freedom remained poor and crackdowns against Muslim Uighurs, Tibetan Buddhists, and unregistered groups, including underground Protestant and Catholic groups
• Violence against women (including imposition of a birth limitation policy coercive in nature that resulted in instances of forced abortion and forced sterilization)
• The Government continued to deny internationally recognized worker rights, and forced labor in prison facilities remained a serious problem. (So that's why Walmart products are so cheap)

So pretty much you can't vote, can't complain, and can't pray for help. bUt th3y m1ght t4k3 0n micro$hl0th#@!

Re:Low gravity eating?

[los furtive]

I'll bite. Water offers a lot more resistance than air (try slapping water or doing a belly flop). That doesn't mean your technique won't work, it will just be a lot harder. And you'll have a lot less luck spearing the meatballs on your spaghetti, let alone the noodles...while chopsticks wouldn't bat an eye. But if you really want to spear all the food you consume in space...by all means don't let me stop you.

Not Funny: Fascist Nation Makes Leap Into Space

[reporter]

Definitely, the Chinese advancement into space is alarming because the Chinese space agency is an integral part of the military agencies in China. By contrast, NASA in the USA is a civilian effort. The MSNBC article reports that the Chinese space effort is super-secretive and that its astronauts receive training via a military program.

As well, you can be sure that Taiwan supplied China with many of the key technologies that accelerated its space program. Numerous Taiwanese living in the USA have been arrested over the years on charges of spying on behalf of mainland China. Some of those arrests involved the theft of American aerospace technology.

To understand why the Chinese space effort is ominous, you need to read no further than the article, "China Detains Health Official for Publicizing AIDS Coverup". Within the same month that the Chinese express fascist pride at their ability to challenge democracies like the USA in space technology, the Chinese arrested and imprisoned a person who revealed an AIDS coverup. This person revealed information that the Chinese were trying to sell AIDS-tained blood products to Americans in 1993-1994.

... from the desk of the reporter