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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.'"
Now, congratulations to the Chinese to jumping over this first hurdle of space exploration, but as the article also points out, their designs are based on 36 year old designs (with some upgrades). Now that this is done, how fast will they advance? Can they move full steam ahead, go to the Moon, to Mars, etc? Or will it take them another 15 years to do the next step?
While it will take time for places like China to really catch up with us, it's not as long as some might think.
The US space program is a MESS. Shuttle launches aren't even news worthy anymore unless they blow up. (no offense intended, those who died are still heroes in my mind). But without a challenge, our space program will continue to lag.
We need more countries like China to catch up. We need someone to out pace us and kick start the US interest in space.
Hopefull this will be the first step.
For god's sake:
... I suddenly have pictures of Bill Gates standing in front of a tank at Tianamein. China doesn't care about Microsoft; it cares about its own self-interests. Exploring science leads to discoveries that help its people and *make money*. Its sad in these post 9-11 days the US has such a hard time with that.
NOT EVERYTHING HAS TO DO WITH MICROSOFT.
They put a man into orbit which is pretty impressive. I don't see an Apple "Spaceport" or Intel Pentium 4000Kilopascal rocket blasting off.
Now while I agree that they probably want to assert their own technical dominance and avoid US interests (thats good economics). But China talking about "restrictive anti-trust business practices"
That courage and the American spirit of adventure is alive and well... albeit in China. In the US, we're still wringing our hands and calling for an end to manned space flight, because we lost a shuttle and seven fine astronauts - along with our backbone as a people.
Kudos to the Chinese. It's about time we had some healthy competition in space. Let's get another Space Race started. Maybe that will get the US Congress and NASA off their collective asses and back into the game (and we might see a human on Mars inside of 10 years). Maybe we can drive a little rivalry to foster some nationalistic pride in the US again (but I doubt it).
I know this: if the Chinese lost a capsule, they'd bow their heads in homage for a moment of silence, then get to launching another one, two weeks later. That's the kind of resolve that allows a nation to succeed. The rest of the world should take note, unless they want to be following in the footsteps of the Chinese for the remainder of the 21st century, instead of leading the way.
"Welcome to the 60's", etc. comments are simply pointless. First, I hate to break this to some of you, but our rockets haven't advanced all that much since Saturn V. The shuttle is still decades old and we have yet to start on a replacement. China doesn't have to catch up to the 21st century to level with us, all they have to do is get up to the 80's technology, which with their immense pool of college graduates, this won't actually take 20 years.
Next, keep making those comments if it makes you feel better, but what are other nations supposed to do? Throw their hands up into the air and just simply accept the American lead and say "The Americans and Russians already beat us to it, what's the point of even trying?" God forbid the underdog from daring to dream big... How about doing something more useful like trying to advance our own technology? Maybe it's time to replace the shuttle with some 21st century technology and puts some gap between us and the Chinese?
Lastly, who really cares where the technology and the help came from? Does China care now that they know how to do it? Let's face it, technology has always been built on top of the works of others. Let's not forget who were the first people to use gun powder and create rockets. China is going to built on top of the new knowledge and keep advancing.
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I'm sure that EVERY country that has the resources is going to closely watch what China does in space.
You can bet that any time anyone launches something orbital (or more importantly, suborbital) that NORAD (an thier Russian etc counterparts) will be looking long and hard at it.
I'd be guessing that somewhere in their three ring binder for space launches there's a little note that says "ring this number and inform NORAD et al of time of launch". It'd be the polite thing to do, anyway.
You are in a twisty maze of processor lines, all alike.
There is a lot of hype here.
Our politicians don't think any farther ahead than the next election.
In the interest of keeping the USA a free nation, this is the strongest argument against implementing government-managed social programs, such as social security and nationalized health care. The only way for people really to watch out for themselves and their families is to either do it themselves or hire a private firm they can trust isn't in it for a quick buck. The government is always in it for the quick buck (or vote).
In China, the government can plan for the long term, because the people have no individual liberty to do so for themselves, as well as not having the inaliable liberties described in the US Constitution. Hell, even Hillary Clinton's book was censored by the Chinese government without her permission (a good recent example). The Chinese government savors keeping its people ignorant and submissive, and, as a US citizen, I find that totally unacceptible.
Healthcare article at Kuro5hin
Gagarin flew 1 orbit. I think Leonov flew 17 on the second.
The Chinese did have 4 unmanned test flights.
The Chinese, as always, have a plan for future exploration. What plan does NASA have?
The Chinese plan (rhetoric) sounds a lot like NASA's plans after Apollo. I don't doubt that there will be 2 lonely Chinese camped out in a minimal space station, no doubt of Russian design, within 10 years. To what end, besides flag waiving?
And let's hope the Chinese do better than NASA, the latter having killed their astronauts with stupid bureaucratic decisions.
Fly any test vehicle as many times as the shuttle has and you will have problems. The failure of the shuttle is not the bureaucracy so much as the lack of builtin robust crew escape and abort capability. Do you think there are no bureaucrats in China?
an ill wind that blows no good
It is great news, and quite refreshing, to see someone actually moving *ahead* in aerospace.
The entire aerospace field has been a complete disappointment since the 1970's.
- the biggest, baddest civilian jetliner that still "rules the skies" is the Boeing 747 - from the late 60's
- the giant B52s carpet-bombing the Taliban last year were from the 60's
- We are witnessing the last flights of the Concorde - a monumental aerospace achievement - from the late 60's
- the world's fastest air-breathing jet, the SR71 Blackbird - also from the late 60's - is now completely retired.
- the fastest rocket plane - the X-15 - was retired in the 60's.
- the aging Space Shuttle (NASA's pride and joy) is 1970s technology that didn't fly until the 80's
America in general, and NASA in particular, have done nothing, and gone nowhere in aerospace in the last quarter century. Compare the 747/Concorde/Blackbird/SaturnV of 1969 with the Spitfire and V2 of 1944. Now that was progress!
It's about time someone else has stood up with even the beginnings of a challenge to American dominance and arrogance in space. America deserves it - they've squandered a 25 year lead. I hope China makes it far. I hope they get to the moon. I hope they build New Beijing on the Lunar South Pole Basin. I am sick and tired of listening to the tired old American "who cares? we were there first" line. So what? What did you manage to do there? Run around, pick up stones, and leave? Good job! You couldn't even get back there now if you wanted to! How many of the engineers and scientists that put Armstrong on the moon are retired? How many of them are even still alive?
America's best achievement right now is the International Space Station. Really, it's just another Mir. Nothing new. Barely outside our atmosphere. I mean come on! Maybe this new development will inspire some new ideas and dreams. Maybe it will propel us at least to the moon again. We need a kick in our proverbial backside.
History will look back on the Kennedy-inspired moon shots as a false start. A sputter of something that failed even as it got going. Ok, but now it's time to let the adventure really begin! Let's get out there and DO something!