China To Launch 2 Into Space In September

Doug Dante writes "China Daily reports that China's space agency plans to launch two Chinese astronauts into space for a 6-day mission in September. The spacecraft includes both a re-entry and an orbital module. The article, an official publication of the Chinese government in English, also extends a plain invitation for the U.S. to partner with China on space."

Astronauts?

[Fulkkari]

Astronauts? Shouldn't the corrent term be Taikonaut [wikipedia.org]? Anyway, it is nice to see China making progress in this field.

Probably not as history goes..

[Devar]

Judging by their reaction in the past, I wonder if the US will cooperate this time around. [slashdot.org]

Re:Astronauts?

[yotto]

Actually, according to the source you submitted:

(I stripped the Chinese characters as they didn't survive the cut/past process)

The term taikonaut is sometimes used in English for astronauts from China by Western news media. The term was coined in May 1998 by Chiew Lee Yih from Malaysia, who used it first in newsgroups. Almost simultaneously, Chen Lan coined it for use in the Western media based on the term "tikng", Chinese for space. In Chinese itself, however, the term yuhangyuan (yhng yun) ("space navigator") has long been used and refers to astronauts and cosmonauts, and the closest term using taikong is taikongren, which literally means space human. Official English text issued by the Chinese government uses the term "astronaut." It is unclear whether the Chinese apply the honorific at training or successful mission completion.

So, in short, no. 'Astronaut' is the correct term according to China.

Re:Astronauts?

[Markus Landgren]

No. The correct term would be yuhangyuan, or in English: astronaut. "Taikonaut" is a play with words by people outside China, which is not any more correct than calling american space travellers "spaceonauts". If you had actually read the link you included you would know this.

Re:A matter of pride

[kcelery]

Feng shui is for choosing the launch site. For choosing the launch date, other metaphysics tools would be used.

Re:A matter of pride

[strelitsa]

Its not the same thing as using some discretion and postponing a launch until the launch pad isn't covered in ice and everything thaws out.

The final investigation found that a combination of the faulty SRB design and wind shear conditions more violent than any ever experienced were direct causes of the SRB failure. It wasn't just the ice/cold temperature that caused the loss of Challenger.

Yes, it was cold in Florida that day. But ice routinely forms on the external fuel tank even on the warmest days. Its a natural function of having that much liquid oxygen contained in an enclosed space. And some of the ice invariably breaks off during launch, in some cases even smacking into the Shuttle's brittle control surfaces (as we are finding out in the Columbia investigation).

"Again, you've provided no proof that there was political pressure of any kind involved in the decision to launch."

And you CAN'T prove there wasn't.

Silly wabbit - you brought it up first. Which means that it is incumbent on you to back it up. And trying to prove a negative earns you nowt but a visit from the Logic Police. Now let me see your license, registration, and proof of insurance please ...

Re:hmmm

[Anonymous Coward]

You don't even need islands; some rocket launch ventures are using sea-based platforms. Still, French Guinea (or is that Freedom Guinea?) is a mainland site with established space infrastructure. I'm not sure shipping all that US hardware down south makes sense, though, especially considering how labor-intensive the shuttle program is, for example. For commercial launches, it makes sense, and US companies already launch on ESA rockets like Ariane.

Re:Money for Space but None for Tsunami Victims

[jameszhou2000]

I just found out your numbers are not correct. I don't know if you do it intentionally. Mainland China contributed US$60 million (that number is from PRC government only. The number of donations from the public is not counted.) Considering Chinese in mainland are still extrememly poor, the number is good enough. A person who earns 100 dollars a day may find it is OK to donate just 1 dollar, but a person who earns 1 dollar a day may have difficulties to contribute even 10 cents. In terms of Taiwan, it contributed US$ 55.6 millon, and that put Taiwan as the number 8 on the list. Hong Kong (as a city) contributed 0.7 billion Hong Kong dollars that is US$ 89.7 million. That is, on an average, each person in Hong Kong contributes 100 HK$ which is about 13 US dollars. That is the world's highest record!

Re:RTFA

[jonwil]

Actually, by the sounds of it its more like Soyuz than Apollo.