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Liu Yang Becomes China's First Female Astronaut
China launched Saturday a rocket bearing three astronauts and an experimental orbiting module intended to presage a full-fledged space station at the end of this decade. While that's big news in itself, the launch also marks the first trip for a female Chinese astronaut. The BBC has a brief video, including part of a pre-launch press conference introducing 33-year-old astronaut Liu Yang, as well as her crewmates.
Seriously; working for a F500 defense contractor, I have very little interest in this.
Igt is only because the boudrgeoisie was driven from power and expropriated in China, and a bureaucratically deformed workers state established after 1949, that this is possible. Class-conscious workers all over the world hail the Chinese space flight! Defend China against imperialist "democracy" counterrevolution campaign! Smash imperialism through international socialist revolution! Dump the CCP bureaucrats who are paving the way for counterrevolution -- for a China ruled by workers and peasants soviets, led by a Leninist-Trotskyist revolutionary party!!!!!!!!!
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I am not sure why it matters that she's the first female astronaut. Was there something about being a woman that made it problematic being in space? Does something strange happen to a vagina that doesn't happen to a penis? No, of course not. It's already been proven women can be in space, or in combat, or do just about anything else a man can do that doesn't require erectile tissue.
Congrats on joining the few members of the "50 mile high club", but I'll be a lot more impressed when the chinese get those people into a stable earth orbit and then return, not just breathe the thin air and then fall back... regardless of the sexual organs present in the cockpit. -_-
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
An astronaut is american. A cosmonaut is russian. A spationaut is french. And a chineese person in the sky is a taïkonaute.
As of 2012, fifty-six women have flown in space, out of 525 total space travelers. By country of origin: 1 each from China, France, UK, South Korea; 2 each from Canada and Japan, 3 from Soviet Union/Russia, and 45 from the United States.
Lucky she wasn't forcibly aborted at seven months...
Long live the future of humanity.
per dolorem ad astra
Who?
SO special!
Don't they realize that highlighting this as special is sexism?
In a non-sexist mind, this is just a normal thing, and in no way special.
And as long as we don't stop nonsense as this, sexism won't stop.
This June 16th is also the 49th anniversary of Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova's trip to space. She was the first woman in space. She piloted the Vostok 6 on 16 June 1963, to become both the first woman and the first civilian to fly in space.
IOW, this is the 49th anniversary of a scary looking woman sitting in a chair for 72 hours doing nothing but getting nauseous, taking a few pictures and keeping a short journal.
Oh My Fscking God!! How inspiring could one woman be?????
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
China is working on a military base space station, but the big todo is that they launched a female soldier.
Amazing that we focus on such BS.
I think that SpaceX should launch a woman or two on the first launch just so that they can claim that they are willing to send women on the first launch, esp. of private space.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
A few day before Liu Yang became the first Chinese female Taikonaut, another Chinese lady was forced to abort her 7-month old fetus
What an irony !!
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
Very little has been reported about Liu Yang as an individual. China society tends to be more communal and rarely celebrates the achievements of one person at the expense of the common unit.
What about that guy who discovered gunpowder?
So, the X-37 was launched before the Tiangong 1 was put into orbit. And as soon as the first manned docking takes place, the X-37 is retrieved? Maybe part of the X-37's mission was to observe the Chinese space station in secret.
I bet there will soon be an African-Canadian Jewish Bisexual Amputee as well!
To be serious - this "The first WOMAN!!!" or "The first BLACK DUDE!!!" to do X really annoys me. Yeah, we get it, people of all genders and nationalities and heritages can do the same stuff. No big surprise - we're all human.
Does anyone else find these articles degrading and unnecessary?
This June 16th is also the 49th anniversary of Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova's trip to space.
It's also Bloomsday.
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
The flight is to test a manual docking procedure and she's one of the experts in operating that system. She started her astronaut training 14 years ago, so she was chosen as a potential astronaut way back then.
Why assume that she was chosen for any other reason? The press is going to make a huge deal about it no matter what the reason because a female face in space sells advertising space - however they don't get to make the call, especially not in China.
The Michigan state house banned her from speaking, since it was such a horrible dirty word.
Exactly what Vagina means in Chinese, I don't know, but apparently it bothers those Republicans.
Especially if they're wearing trashy Frank Frazetta outfits.
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
By launch program is also interesting:
Vostok: 1
Soyuz only: 7
Shenzhou: 1
Soutz && STS: 3
STS only : 44
Yes, of the eight women that went up on the Vostok/Soyuz, three of them were from Soviet Union/Russia...
IOW, this is the 49th anniversary of a scary looking woman sitting in a chair for 72 hours doing nothing but getting nauseous, taking a few pictures and keeping a short journal.
Oh My Fscking God!! How inspiring could one woman be?????
IKR?
I'm pretty sure my mom did that for nine months. She didn't even wear a space suit until the last month.
Inspired yet?
Oh My Fscking God!! How inspiring could one woman be?????
If you didn't grow up in Soviet Union, you'll never know for real. But, yes, she was very inspiring to millions of Soviet girls. Which was pretty much the point.
Austronaut
The world is made by those who show up for the job.
She had only 2 years of training compared to other astronauts who had 14 years of training. The male astronaut trained for 14 years. So any way you look at it she was chosen because of her sex.
Who else first read it as Liu Kang?
Congrats to her and the Chinese space program for kicking some ass. May I say she is a beautiful ambassador for humanity in space also !
Note: "female" is an adjective: a female astronaut, a female cat.
It is not a noun, so you shouldn't say "a female went into space". Use "woman" for that purpose.
Both Merriam Webster and Dictionary.com disagree with your specious statement. Female is a word with both adjective *and* noun definitions.
GP's usage is correct; you are wrong.
Sure, because everyone (except those in the Soviet space program) thought that she actually *did something* besides sit there.
At least Our Guys had control sticks even though they were mainly for emergencies.
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
Who cares, if the end result is that many more girls figured they could try their luck in fields they wouldn't have considered before because of cultural conditioning?
So we don't care about actual fact; what's *really* important is inspiring little girls?
Got any children? Specifically, girls? Then you know that Things Change when they hit puberty. Maybe they'll revert to wanting to to do something manly (like mine wanted to be a Marine for a couple of years), but just as likely not.
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
Even Gagarin had no control and everything was automated.
I agree completely with the sentiment. The "disney princesses" suck. They just want to sit pretty and wait for 'prince charming' I find this disturbing. (Mulan is cool though)
On the other hand when i was growing up my biggest hero was "The incredible Hulk", some guy who's would get angry, totally loose it, and go on a violent rampage. Not a great role model if you think about it, but I dont think it did me any harm.
grrrraRARARAGHGHAHG!!!!!!
*ahem*
Personally I dont think creating 'artificial' role models makes sense. I think the problem is parents etc, for some reason most of them want to encourage girls to be 'girly' and boys to be 'boyish' in terms of their own preconceptions of what these roles should mean. My sister hosted a birthday party where she gave all the boys blue boxes with a car in it, and the girls pink boxes with a hairclip and a wand (which i was told is typical). Maybe boys and girls are naturally drawn to slightly different things, but many adults seem to want to actively enforce and artificially exagerate the difference.
The "other gender" is woman for humans, bitch for dogs, hen for birds and so on... but the gender that means any of these is "female". It's thus often easier to use the generic term for a member of that gender when you can't be bothered to use the specific term or think that the other person might not understand it. Compare "What's your parrot like?" and "6 years old gray cock" versus "6 years old gray male".
It's also age- and culture-neutral. At what point does one stop being a girl and start being a woman? At what point does one stop being a puppy and start being a bitch? Doesn't matter, they're females for all their life.
Good for her.
Sure, because everyone (except those in the Soviet space program) thought that she actually *did something* besides sit there.
At least Our Guys had control sticks even though they were mainly for emergencies.
Spacecraft orientation maintenance and orbital control was actually not entirely automated on the Vostok: Thereskova had to do that manually based on info from her onboard instruments and groundcontrol feedback. So you are just being petty here. The Soviet Union launched a woman into space within 2 years of their first manned flight. The US did so only 22 years after their first manned flight.
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem delendam esse
So you are just being petty here.
No, if you're correct about what she had to do, then I'm ill-informed.
The Soviet Union launched a woman into space within 2 years of their first manned flight.
And they waited 19 years to send up another woman. Obviously it was just a publicity stunt:
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
That, I will grant you. In fact, the second Soviet female astronaut (Svetlana Savitskaya) was specifically launched to capture the distinction of being the first woman to do an EVA, just beating Kathryn Sullivan by a few months
I think Thereskova was mainly choosen because of her parachutist background (the early Russian kosmonauts parachuted out of the capsule just before landing). The other factors certainly played, but as an "additional".
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem delendam esse
caveqat, an old fashioned male, comments that there are a lot of sexist pigs, no matter the gender. Enough said. So this is how we get overseas science news in theUS, no big deal, one second blurbs. This just points out the difference of access to the news, and news control of the news flow in the US of A. Not pointing out that the designs of the capsuels is oh so simular, and look like the old and new style combined. Maybe even enhanced over our "upcoming" design. But look at the graphics of the mission control, Looked like 1950's scifi production. But congradulations China. Proving science still exists. Research, development, and a carry-over to educational development, are what you need for the future. Not the BS we are being given in this religous warring society.
O yeah, I read today that she then became a Hero of the Soviet Union, as well; interesting story really, bit of a role model: Valentina Tereshkova
N.B. that photo looks like you'd REALLY not want to pick a fight with her. Or accidentally eat her cosmonaut ration. Or look at her in a funny way.
To be, or not to be: isn't that quite logical, Slashdot Beta?
Did she have a choice?
All of this made possibly by the cheap shit you bought from China at WalMart that broke 6 months later. Enjoy your consumer culture, China will do the space exploration from here on out - thanks America!
and how much tech was stolen from the Russians, Americans etc etc.?
Just like the high speed train was stolen from the French, the chinese stealth fighter was stolen from the Americans.
if they are that good of an engineering talent pool, create their own technology.
That only China and Russia (two countries that aren't exactly friendly to the US) are the only ones capable of putting humans in earth orbit at the moment? I know that I would, considering that US satellites fix themselves up there.
I'm hoping that the next US president will feel the same way (whoever they are), and we can get a good old fashioned space race restarted. It would be nice to see US scientists and engineers working on something more important than developing an better iPhone for a change.
China is only slightly ahead of private spaceflight, which makes it hard for me to be impressed. Give it 3 or 4 years, and private companies will be able to do more impressive stuff than China. At that point, it will just be a matter of having enough money (it's not much more than that now, really).
That, and launching women into space isn't actually any more difficult than launching men (you have to design the spacesuits a little differently, but that's trivial). When the first women were launched into space, it was a triumph for equality, but sexism isn't really China's biggest problem (well, not after birth, any way).
I thought Your Guys had control sticks mainly to assuage their egos.
Sure. Why recruit the best fighter pilots, when even a monkey can sit in a sealed-up tin can?
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
Wins ! Flawless Victory
That was the problem, yes. The space program basically needed warm bodies in good health to sit in a sealed up tin can without freaking out excessively over the danger. The air force pilots they tapped for that had those qualities, but were primarily pilots. They were all essentially overqualified for the job. There is a (dramatized, obviously) scene from the movie _The Right Stuff_ where the pilots demand a window and manual controls. While the movie is just a movie, it is somewhat based on reality.
Elon Musk need to go into serious training.
We want the distinction of having the first douchebag in space.
bone her. That is all.
I reckon she's a real sweety. So pretty.
Although not as high as some Western countries, crime rate in China should be considered as "High"
But there is one big different between China and those so-called "Western countries"
Unlike in Western countries, where criminals are "protected" by the laws, crime victims in China often take the law in their own hand and punish the perpetrators - sometimes killing the criminals\
And that has nothing to do with Confucianism - "Confucianism" is but an obsolete piece of cultural artifact
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
If Yuri Gagarin had been a woman, would the headline still have read, "Gagarin first Russian in space", or would it have been forced to mention that it was a woman, too?
My personal feelings for all things China is to wish the woman astronaut a safe and successful recovery of her dead body!
It occurred to me that it ought to be in the economic interests of any space agency to push for an astronaut core PRIMARILY made up of women.
They are (on average) smaller, lighter, and eat less, all advantages in an industry where every ounce of extra weight can cost hundreds of dollars.
In the early days of space flight, astronauts were converted test pilots who were all male due to military recruiting rules, which have now changed.
They are equal, if not better, to their male counterparts when it comes to mathematical and scientific ability, and we have finally reached a point where culture has stopped telling them otherwise.
And without a doubt, it would be a public relations coup for the first agency to send up an all-female crew into space.
Jeice
http://dragonball.wikia.com/wiki/Jeice
America, when it was still a space nation, consistently made an effort to include minorities and other nationalities (who could not get into space themselves) to include them as astronauts.
Wonder when the Chinese will start offering the occasional ride to Americans.
Does anyone know what (if any) relationship there is between Liu Yang and Liu Wang?