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China Launches Two Astronauts Into Space

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the the-more-the-merrier dept.

DIY News writes to tell us that China has launched their second manned space mission just two years after becoming only the third nation to launch a human into orbit. Astronauts Fei Julong and Nie Haisheng took off Wednesday at 9:00 pm EST (0100 GMT) for a mission that could last up to five days.

4 of 44 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Such a shame by FleaPlus · · Score: 3, Informative

    that China is only interested in Space as a prestige project.

    I suspect it's a little more than that. Here's a little blurb from the wikipedia article on the Chinese Space Program:

    China's space program has several goals. The first is to increase China's national prestige. The second is to develop China as a low cost satellite launcher. Finally, there is the ambitious goal of mining space for resources, namely the moon.

  2. taikonauts by AntiNeutrino · · Score: 2, Informative

    You mean Taikonauts you insensitive clod!

    --
    I can't even remember what it was I came here to get away from - Bob Dylan
  3. All For? by dereference · · Score: 3, Informative
    I am all for Space Exploration, but a country like China needs to focus its money on feeding and clothing its population first. Millions are homeless and have no chance at a better life. People need to straighten out their priorities.

    Well, you're off topic, so I hope I don't get modded into oblivion for responding, but I think you should reconsider your logic. Let's reword your statement just a bit, for the sake of argument:

    I am all for Space Exploration, but a country like U.S. needs to focus its money on feeding and clothing its population first. Hundreds of thousands are homeless and have no chance at a better life. People need to straighten out their priorities.

    Given the relative populations, and uncertainty of the statistics, I'm not sure which country has a bigger homeless problem. But I sure wouldn't argue that the U.S. should adjust its priorities and send all NASA's funding to care for the homeless.

  4. Re:Food Would Be Nice ? ? by stienman · · Score: 3, Informative

    China needs to focus its money on ...

    When you go to a food buffet, do you put one item on your plate, sit down and finish it before going back for your second item, which you also sit down and finish before moving on to the third?

    Each country has to make decisions on how to allocate their resources. Furthermore, if you focus completely on one task to the exclusion of all others not only do important things fall by the wayside, but your resources are not being used most efficiently.

    A country like China needs to focus its money on a multitude of things. Cutting their space program doesn't neessarily improve other programs, especially since the resources needed for space aren't necessarily going to improve the economy when spent elsewhere.

    Besides, until your own country has solved poverty you shouldn't be the one lecturing another country on how they should spend their resources.

    -Adam