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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.'"
Thats the problem with Chinese space missions, as soon as one has landed, you want another.
Quidquid Latine dictum sit, altum videtur (anything said in Latin sounds important)
According to the article on space.com, the mission cost 1 billion. To quote, "Yang hurtled around the planet for the rest of Wednesday, making a planned orbit shift in midafternoon and stopping work only to rest and eat Chinese food designed especially for space travel." I for one think 1 billion dollars is well worth it for space chinese food. Along with space icecream, we can now have a complete and balanced space diet. I look forward to the day when the guy on the phone of the local chinese restraunt asks if i want my dumplings to be steamed, panfried, or 'space'.
It should be noted that US hardware for human space travel is also based on designs which are around three decades old (with some upgrades). Ditto Russian hardware.
When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a skull.
Their next project is going to be a "space elevator," constructed by standing on each other's shoulders.
That should get 'em to Mars before us.
KFG
To those not in the know, Firefly's set in a future where China became one of the dominant superpowers, influential enough that all the English-speaking characters can easily communicate... well, curse anyway... in Chinese (and Serenity's system alarms are bilingual, English and Cantonese). Could be that Joss Whedon's idea for a background might not be so farfetched!
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.
This story suggests this isn't just a short-term propaganda project. The author's analysis of the systems involved, that they included a lot of equipment that you wouldn't bother with on a one-off design, suggest that they put a lot of thought behind the system and they're in this for the long haul.
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.
EvilCON - Made Famous by
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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That's putting it mildly. Our "captains of industry" don't think any farther ahead than four or five months. Our politicians don't think any farther ahead than the next election.
(Some of the other posts remind me of the Onion's sideline caption: 6,000-Year-Old Culture Now Considered a "Developing Nation".)
All the researched, published, well-documented reports about modern China -- i.e., ones in bookstores, not slashdot; actual books, not single web pages and sound bites -- point to plans stretching over the next ten to fifty years, not just for space, but for China in general. 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. We in the U.S. wouldn't dream of investing in something that won't benefit the same people investing in it.
Analogy: In the minutes that China's rockets take to slowly lift off the ground, America is racing the quarter-mile in top-fuel hotrods and claiming they rule the world... while China's rocket gains momentum... and keeps gaining momemtum... and eventually covers distances the little modded hotrod can't even dream of. Yes, they're in for the very long haul.
You cannot apply a technological solution to a sociological problem. (Edwards' Law)
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.
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.