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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.

2 of 44 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Such a shame by ravenspear · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Private citizens are launching themselves into space. Anyone with 20 million to spare can go hang out on the space station. It's hardly prestigous for a country that contains the majority of the world's population to acheive something that private citizens of other countries can beat.

    Correction, private citizens can pay a government (Russia) to launch them into space. They cannot do it by themselves. Only two governments currently have the capability. China being only the third to do it puts them in an elite group. It may not be a significant achievement by today's measure of technology, but it is certainly nontrivial.

  2. No Borders in Space by ndansmith · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Nationalism be damned, go China! I am honestly very excited for space flight, no matter who is doing it.