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Chinese Astronaut Makes It Back Safely
brindafella writes "SpaceDaily is reporting that China's historic first manned space mission has ended with the safe return of its first astronaut Lieutenant Colonel Yang Liwei, 38, who landed just before 6.30am Beijing time (2230 UTC 15/10) at the designated recovery zone north east of Beijing. The capsule has been recovered and opened and the pilot is very much alive, 'and doing autographs.' Furthermore, 'Premier Wen Jiabao was seen on television talking to Yang on the phone and smiling widely and clapping after he hung up.'"
Just to be a technical terry here but the creation of the warp drive was achieved AFTER the US and nearly every major nation on earth had been ripped apart by the third world war. As such the US no longer existed.
Boy do I smell sour grapes. Despite your excitement of the Chinese making it into space 40 years after the Russians and the Americans, the average Chinese citizen will have less freedom than the average Iraqi. Blasting into space will not bring Chinese political prisoners out of the painful shadows of their torturers. At least the money and effort of the Americans and their coalition will bring freedom to a people. The money spent by the Chinese government is a nice PR stunt but it will do little for the common man's ability to be free in China.
Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.
versus
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/tg/stores/deta il/reviews/-/books/1560983868/202-9638315-4933460
versus
http://history.msfc.nasa.gov/goddard/history.html
versus
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/6303 26140X?v=glance
And so on...
I'm just saying the history's a little muddied as to whether von Braun actually copied the patents or if their designs were similar based on reading the same literature, doing similar experiments, etc. (c.f., Newton and Leibniz).
-l
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On the other hand, the US is not even 250 years old, whereas England has called itself that since I think no later than the 11th century, France the 1200s IIRC, and I'm not sure about Spain or Portugal or the other big exploration countries.
"And let's face it: Russia was only steps behind America for much of that race."
Russia was ahead for the first half or so; they were first to launch a satellite, the first to launch a man*, the first to orbit a person (which was for them wrapped up in the first manned flight, while for us it took until our third launch), and the first to perform an EVA. The first thing we were first at so to speak was inflight rendezvous, and that wasn't until Gemini 12. The first time we put ourselves clearly in the lead was Christmas 1968 with the flight of Apollo 8.
*They were also the first to orbit a woman (maybe 1967? The late 60s come to mind), however as this is not a technological achievement I left it out.
They realize that almost none of the plans will come to fruition in their lifetimes, but that's okay, their descendants will put the finishing touches on and see it happen.
Chinese long-term thinking goes both ways tho'. Let me tell you a story. In 1405, the Ming emperors were well on their way to establishing naval (and hence trading) dominance in the coastal Pacific. Under the command of Admiral Cheng Ho, a Chinese fleet of 250 vessels and 28,000 men explored as far as the Persian Gulf and Ehiopia. Let me put those numbers into perspective: 600 years ago the Chinese were deploying vessels of 180M in length, that is 30M shorter than the present-day British Royal Navy's flagship. Cheng's ships were big enough that for extended voyages, they could grow food on their decks! With that sort of technological superiority, the Chinese should have established a hegemony that would have persisted today.
But in 1433, the new Ming emperor and his bureaucrats grew afraid of the rapidly expanding merchant class, who were growing wealthy through international trade, and began to pass laws to limit economic growth, to keep political power firmly in the hands of the Dynasty. By 1500 it was a capital offense to own or construct a vessel with more than 2 masts.
In 1498, European explorer Vasco da Gama, in a single show, had managed to navigate to the Indian ocean. By Cheng Ho's standards, da Gama's ship was puny and his crew mere amateurs. Da Gama should have been patted on the head by vastly superior Chinese sailors and traders and sent back home. Only, there was no Chinese fleet anymore; the Mings had ordered it broken up. By 1502, Portugal in particular and Europe in general had asserted military superiority in the Indian Ocean and China had begun to turn inwards.
Now, 600 years later, a European colony is the world's dominant economic, technological and military power, Europe itself is still incredibly rich and powerful by historic standards, and China is only starting to recover from a decision made by a weak Emperor in 1433. I predict that history will repeat itself, as soon as a new Cheng Ho leads the exploration of space, the Chinese political establishment will turn on him. That's how it works in China.
Don't forget that China has 5 times the USA's population, 10 times Japan's and 16 times that of Germany. It's not at all surprising or threatening that their GDP would be bigger. However, that huge population won't be content with the lack of democratic controls or labour protection laws forever...
The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little longer.
--Henry Kissinger
In France it happens that French cosmonauts (when taking part to a Russian mission) or astronauts (with NASA) are simply called "spationauts".
(I think the word is for all Europeans, but I only know its use in French).
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