China Just Launched Two Astronauts Into Orbit (bbc.com)

An anonymous Slashdot reader quotes the BBC: China has launched two men into orbit in a project designed to develop its ability to explore space. The astronauts took off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in northern China at 23:30 GMT on Sunday [7:30 p.m. EST].

The plan is for them to dock with and then spend 30 days on board the Tiangong 2 space station testing its ability to support life. This and previous launches are seen as pointers to possible crewed missions to the Moon or Mars.
NBC calls this evidence of "the intensifying U.S.-China space rivalry... With the current U.S.-led International Space Station expected to retire in 2024, China could be the only nation left with a permanent presence in space."

Comments

Solve problems on Earth first

[Okian Warrior]

I don't know if anyone remembers, but at the time the space station was being constructed many scientists complained that there was no clear purpose for the project.

It was said (at the time) that there were no compelling experiments that needed to be done (in long-term weightlessness), and that the money could be better spent on other more interesting astronomical projects such as rovers, off-Earth exploratory missions, orbital telescopes, and such.

To date I still don't think any really ground-breaking science was done at the station. Yeah, little PR things like how cats cope with zero G, and how spiderwebs look in space, but basically nothing very useful.

Now we have this provocative headline "China could be the only nation left with a permanent presence in space!" and... yeah? So what?

We haven't lost the ability to put things into orbit, and space stations are enormously expensive.

Let's solve a couple of our problems down here on Earth first.