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.'"

Comments

Whens the next mission

[The Famous Druid]

Thats the problem with Chinese space missions, as soon as one has landed, you want another.

Re:How fast will they move ahead?

[isomeme]

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.

Hopefully the start of another space race....

[Desmoden]

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. ....or we could tell Bush there is oil on Mars =)

Re:Hopefully the start of another space race....

[Cordath]

China is actually coming along nicely in a lot of ways. It's beginning to embrace capitalism. Socialism is a nice idea, but greed breeds innovation better. As China's economy heats up it's people are going to come into closer contact with the rest of the world and mainstream world ideas. The communist regime might not be overthrown, but its a safe bet they're going to gradually become more and more moderate. With China's vast natural resources and immense population their economy could easily dwarf that of the U.S. within a couple decades. Say what you will, 1 billion+ is a heckuva tax base!

Keep in mind that skilled labour costs in China are a fraction of what they are in the U.S.. The resources of China's space program could easily dwarf those of NASA long before their economy grows larger than that of the U.S.. (This assumes both nations spend a similar proportion of their GDP on their space programs. China may well value it higher and spend even more...) As has been said, they don't exactly have to reinvent every wheel that has led NASA to it's current cutting-edge 1970's shuttle program either. There are plenty of capitalists, many of them in the U.S., who would only be too glad to do a little Cantonese consulting.

This isn't necessarily how things will happen. However, if the Chinese don't do anything stupid their economic and technological superiority is functionally inevitable provided U.S. citizens don't start multiplying like mosquitoes. It's a simple matter of statistics unless you subscribe to some sort of white supremast movment and belive that Chinese minds are inherently inferior.

Personally, I'm thinking it might be a good idea to start early on those Cantonese lessons. :D

Re:How fast will they move ahead?

[quacking duck]

Slow but sustained development would be a terrific thing, unfortunately I think China's government is really only interested in the short term propaganda value, just like the US.

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.

Re:Response to Microsoft?

[petabyte]

For god's sake:

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" ... 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.

It's good to see...

[iiioxx]

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.