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Chinese Crew Completes Manual Docking With Orbiting Module
A few days back, the crew of the Shenzhou 9 were along for the ride as their craft docked to — or rather, was docked to — an orbiting module. On Sunday, the docking procedure was repeated, but under the direction of the Chinese astronauts themselves rather than controllers on the ground.
I love the smell of butthurt American in the morning!
Seriously, can't we congratulate for once?
They tried to join ISS, A certain North American country said "never, never, never!", and it wasn't the Canadians nor Mexico.
The US blocked them from participation in the ISS. They wanted to participate, but weren't allowed to.
Poor means hoping the toothache goes away.
I have to agree with AC's sentiments. "Even the Russians"? WTF? Let me just ask - how many nations, corPorations, and other entities have gone into sPace? How many have docked with anything? How many have made a landing, from which PeoPle walked away, alive and well?
It seems that the list makes uP a rather small, exclusive club.
So, just congratulate the Chinese. I like to bash them when it's deserved. Start a thread on consumer goods, and I'll start the bashing for you. They sell a lot of substandard shit that isn't worth the effort of carrying home if it were given to you. In this case, they've done good. Better than the US can do. We don't even have a frigging sPacecraft anymore. We are reduced to bumming rides from PeoPle who can afford transPortation.
Doesn't that remind you of your high school and/or college days?
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
Supposedly this is an advancement on an automated docking. Can someone fill me in or is this just media spin?
they cock block everything
, even the Russians managed that.
Very funny. Without the Russians experience with Saljut 7 and MIR there would be no ISS.
Competition is good, and it looks like the Chinese are proving very competitive in the space race. I'm sure there will be those who claim they "stole" the technology, but regardless of how they acquired the ideas, it's still the Chinese people and industry who are making it work. And as we all know from the failed launches of other nations, even having access to an internet full of historical designs and ideas doesn't make space technology work.
Only solid efforts and tenacity do that.
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
Because they were caught repeatedly stealing US satellite technology.
They are being punished for being thieves and moral bankrupts, and they only have themselves to blame.
Having grown up on the Florida space coast watching Saturn V's and Space Shuttles since I was 6 - I can see the pride and excitement in the faces of the astronauts and spectators and I remember what that felt like. It's hard for me to not be a little envious. Have we "advanced" now that Obama Administration killed our manned space program (after promising not to BTW) ? I don't know.... Despite the great success of SpaceX I am skeptical that commercialized space will ever make enough money to survive without government subsidies, only time will tell. But congrats to China for a job well done, enjoy it while you can !
ISS is mainly MIR-2 and its assorted bits and bobs. If Russians decide to go and play their own ball and take Mir-2 bits, the rest would deorbit and burn in no time and the Russians would still have a viable space station.
Dude what's wrong with your P's???
Look at his username - the lower-case 'p' ran away in 1956.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
A certain North American country said "never, never, never!", and it wasn't the Canadians nor Mexico.
Are you accusing the French of being responsible?
BTW, North America also includes Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and arguably Panama. Also one other country whose name escapes me for the moment, but which all the others find extremely irritating...
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
Come on man, give Ps a chance.
>If China was serious about Space exploration and development
Hmm ... how is a country that's actually exploring and developing space by physically being there and doing the work all by themselves not considered serious?
Maybe their technology is trailing but they aren't kissing anyone else's ass or asking permission to be there. They're just getting the job done.
How short a memory so many have. If it were not for the "sharing" of guidance system technology in the not so distant past (Clinton era), the Chinese may have not been able to get off the ground successfully, let alone operate in space. Now we are so in debt to China, and have allowed them to manufacture so many of our high-tech products, no wonder they have "caught-up" in such a short time (relatively easy when you can steal what you cannot invent on your own). Yes, you congratulate your competitors when they deserve it, but you keep a wary eye on them, as they often only have their best interests at heart.
I think of the current situation as similar to a hostile takeover. A big company with lots of cash (China in this analogy) buys out a company deep in debt (USA), strips it of its most valuable assets, fires most of the employees, closes the company, then moves on to the next target.
What we need is the equivalent to the call to action this nation experienced after Sputnik so rocked the world. More and more we see reports of the decline of US students in education and see breakthroughs occurring regularly in other countries, but our people just want to play on the web and watch American Idol (which makes them Americans at Idle). Problem is, most Americans do not understand what is really happening in the world, what their "me-first" and lazy outlook has done -- and simply do not care.
Liu Wang took charge of the operation, while Liu Yang conducted aerospace experiments
... and Jing Haipeng was heard singing "Louie, Louie" in the background.
and here is the proof that the punishment has been successful. Next time US will possibly need to apply to their program.
Yeah, and many a whaler died on the moon trying to bring it back.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
I don't think China have learned all that much in the interim.
I disagree - they have certainly learnt how to be brave. How many people do you know who would be willing to go into space in a craft with a "Made in China" sticker on the side?
I'm fairly sure you never heard of Central America before, so all is forgiven.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_America
Did you even read what you linked? Central America is not a continent, it's a subcontinent. While all those countries may be part of the Central America subcontinent, they're also part of North America.
Just out of curiosity, what would happen to the ISS if Russia decided that they would transport only Russian back and forth from the ISS? Could NASA somehow make it unusable to the Russian? I would think that we would want the Chinese to be capable of taking astronauts to the ISS only so we are not totally dependent on the Russians. It will probably another 3 years at least before any astronauts are taken up from the US. A Russian general has called for a preemptive strike on a ABM system in Poland. I can not see any cooperation with the Russian if they are militarily striking one of our allies.
Actually, the Russians are going to disconnect their modules in 2018 and create their own follow on station.
I am becoming gerund, destroyer of verbs.
Not likely. It is almost certain that by 2018, we will have a tug for the western half. Even now, NASA is hard at work on developing a tug, as well as automated docking.
The rest of it is great as it stands. The issue for Russian side is that they have very little room, and literally no power.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Chinese are adept at "copy first, improve later", which is an entirely reasonable attitude - much more so than building something that's already done from scratch. What many people are missing is the "improve" part - but it's there and working just fine. As a simple example, 40 years ago Chinese were using AK with minimal changes as their main infantry rifle. 20 years ago it was AK with considerable changes. Today it's a rifle in a different caliber, with completely different look and ergonomics - it's still ultimately derived from AK operation, but at that point it's far enough that it can no longer be meaningfully called a clone. They did similar things with aircraft, and are now working on the same for naval carriers. Why not space?
No, it wasn't, though it's a very popular misconception, fueled largely by vaguely similar external look, especially the magazine shape (Czech Vz 58 is also mistaken for an AK for similar reasons). Constructively, the closest living relative of StG 44 is FN FAL. AK also uses long-stroke piston action, but otherwise it is dissimilar in how it locks the barrel, construction of the trigger, and general layout.
You could probably say that AK - or rather the new intermediate 7.62x39 cartridge around which it was designed - was directly inspired by StG 44, since the latter was the first firearm designed around a similar cartridge, and as such the first assault rifle. But a copy it's not.
Its only a little space station, and its only a docking. Yes, the US did all this years ago. But what have you done since?
Whatever else you may think of the Chinese government, it's manned space program is excellent. Despite a low launch rate, it is inaccurate to describe it as slow. Each individual mission is a significant step forwards, whereas in the comparable stage in the US/Soviet space race, large numbers of similar missions were being flown.
They are being methodical and efficient. Every mission they launch is a clear and useful step towards their first major stated objective (an orbiting space station). Look at Tiangong 1 - despite its space lab moniker, its main role is as a docking target - comparable to the 'Agena' docking target of the Gemini project. Except that Tiangong 1 is dual use; loaded up with supplies, versions of it will be used as a cargo ferry to future Chinese space stations. Tiangong 1 itself is closely derived from the Shenzhou spacecraft, so they have greatly reduced the cost of developing a large cargo transport by piggy-backing it on the development and testing they would have to do for Shenzhou anyway.
China is only 'behind' in the list of things they've done in space, and are rapidly catching up. They have the technological base (largely thanks to US outsourcing manufacturing there) and they have a political culture which is patient and long term.
Contrast this to the US; the post Apollo era is characterized by presidents dreaming up the next big thing, and then having it cancelled or underfunded by later presidents (Nixon had the Shuttle, Reagan has "Space Station Freedom", Bush I had the 90 day study, Bush II had VSE, and now Obama has COTS and SLS - both might not survive the next guy)
If the US picked a program, funded it properly, and stuck with it - then its head start and technological know-how would leave China in the dust. But really, what is the chance of that actually happening? This is the view of a foreigner, but most US politics seems to centre around endless, futile, partisan bickering. Whence the political will for a long term, bi-partisan space program that presidents can resist the urge to constantly meddle with and reorganise?