China's First Mars Probe Ready To Launch

henrypijames writes "At the Shanghai Aerospace Exhibition last week, China's first Mars probe Yinghuo-1 was the main attraction. The newly completed probe will soon be sent to Moscow for some further testing, before a joint launch with Russia's own probe Phobos-Grunt from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan this October."

Comments

China's First Mars Probe Ready To Launch

[TheCreeep]

If it's going to Moskow for testing, it's not fucking ready to launch now is it?

Slashdot editors: Read the damn summary at least!

Re:China's First Mars Probe Ready To Launch

[tftp]

the Russians probably want to check it themselves before launch since its riding with their own probe. Hate to have it fall apart at Max Q and destroy everything on board.

The probe will be integrated with the rest of the payload in Moscow, and then tested again. And then shipped to the launch site. And then tested again. Then it will be installed onto the rocket and tested again. Tests will only stop for a while when the rocket lifts off. Nobody in rocket business is insane enough to say "Well, they tested it in China 6 months ago, so we just assume that the batteries are good and all cables are hooked up right, and nobody damaged anything, so just launch as it is!"

Re:Sounds fine to me

[SerpentMage]

I have no idea why this is modded as funny. I am not Russian, nor Chinese, but Western (grew up in Europe, Canada, and the States). And jokes like these is what made us inferior. Remember those jokes in the 1970's regarding Japanese cars! What could wrong! HA! We know what went wrong...

I am not saying let's be confrontational. I am saying don't laugh since the last laugh might be on us!