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Space Science

Chinese Manned Space Flight Set For Autumn 373

Posted by simoniker from the vatican-city-next-on-launchpad dept.
brandido writes "According to an article at Space.com, "Chinese space officials remain on schedule for the first piloted flight of that nation's Shenzhou spacecraft. Chief designers and mission directors say Shenzhou 5 will be launched in autumn, reported the People's Daily last week." Between this, the X-Prize, and multiple launches of Mars probes in the last few weeks, it looks like the space race may be heating back up?"
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Chinese Manned Space Flight Set For Autumn More

Chinese Manned Space Flight Set For Autumn

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  • it's like my dad always said, "a little competition never hurt anyone."

    look at the last time the US had a space race, we achieved what many call the greatest achievement of mankind, we landed on the moon.

    Mike
    • "we achieved what many call the greatest achievement of mankind, we landed on the moon."

      ...or did we? [slashdot.org]

    • I agree about a little competition never hurting, but I think the greatest achievement of mankind could be any one of these:
      1. Not blowing up the whole world yet
      2. Moveable type and its' consequences (books, replication of knowledge, etc)
      3. Penicillin
      Once manned heavier-than-air flight was demonstrated, going to the moon was pretty inevitable, but would have been impossible to achieve w/o either of the first 2 items :-)

      • Bah, moveable type? (Score:5, Funny)

        by roystgnr ( 4015 ) <roy@3.14159stogners.org minus pi> on Monday June 16, 2003 @03:13PM (#6215883) Homepage
        Gutenberg was a wuss who would have frozen to death if it hadn't been for the inventions of Ogg, Bringer of Flame.
      • I'd suggest the transistor.

        You would have a hard time getting to the moon without a lot of transistors.

      • Re:let's get ready to rumble! (Score:5, Insightful)

        by el-spectre ( 668104 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @03:17PM (#6215929) Journal
        There's a slight difference between a 100 foot flight in a light aircraft, and launching a 7 million pound rocket, I think.

        I am still amazed that we went from 'can't fly' to 'can land on other astronomical bodies' in less than a lifetime.
        • There's a slight difference between a 100 foot flight in a light aircraft, and launching a 7 million pound rocket, I think. I am still amazed that we went from 'can't fly' to 'can land on other astronomical bodies' in less than a lifetime.
          The fact that it was done in under a lifetime shows that it wasn't such a big stretch after all. thanks for (inadvertently) proving my point :-)
          • Sorry slick, that pretty poor logic. That 2 events occur in succession does not mean that one naturally led to the other.

        • Re:let's get ready to rumble! (Score:3, Insightful)

          by Anonymous Coward
          I certainly don't want to diminish the importance of heavier-than-air flight, but I just have to be a twit and point out that people have been flying in balloons since the late 1700s.

          What really amazes me is how soon after the historic flights of Alcock and Brown, and of Charles Lindbergh, it became comparatively safe and routine to fly across the Atlantic.

          (I know my comma placement sucks, but I'm too tired to fix it.)
      • I'd call penicillin-based antibiotics more of an achievement of a mold than of mankind. After all, they are the ones that evolved the bacterial-nuking chemicals as a survival mechanism...
      • Just because an achievement was dependant upon earlier advances does not lessen its greatness any. Indeed, it would be better to say that Man landing on the Moon represented the pinnacle of human achievement to that point, the result of thousands of years of single achievements put into focus by a unique moment. The only thing I can think of that will trump that is when we create our first extrasolar colony and ensure the long term survival of the human race, regardless of what happens on Earth.

      • 3. Penicillin

        Definitely penicillin. Thank God, no more clap!

      • Aircraft vs. spacecraft. (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Christopher Thomas ( 11717 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @03:51PM (#6216408)
        Once manned heavier-than-air flight was demonstrated, going to the moon was pretty inevitable

        Um, no.

        Flight through the atmosphere with heavy craft and launching something into space are almost completely unrelated problems.

        For the first, you need to figure out how airfoils work to produce lift (helicopter blades count in this category), and figure out how to move the air that surrounds your craft to produce thrust. Then there's materials engineering to get the performance to weight ratio nice enough.

        For the second, you have to figure out celestial mechanics, and you have to figure out how to build reaction drives that _don't_ use the surrounding medium to move (as you won't have air around you for much of your trip, and it's more of a hindrance than a help at significant speed). Then you have the herculean task of materials engineering and clever craft design required to get an impulse-to-weight ratio large enough to escape the gravity well (or at least have enough delta-v for orbit). If the gravity well was even a little deeper, we wouldn't have been able to do it with chemical rockets at all (though aircraft would still be easy to build).

        There's a world of difference between a jet engine and a rocket engine. There's a world of difference between something light and strong enough to glide and something light and strong enough to have a 40:1 wet:dry weight and make orbit. It's not a difference of scale - it's a difference of fundamental type of device.

        In summary, please do more research about exactly what's involved in each task before proclaiming that one follows from the other. What actually precipitated _both_ was the industrial revolution, which gave a drastic increase in technology and in materials science.
        • I was referring to the drive, the curiosity, that would make going to the moon inevitable. Once we found out we could fly, we could inevitably want to go hight, further, faster.

          And I for one am glad the Chinese are doing this. It brings some real excitement into space again. Because they're now mankind's best chance to set up a lunar base.

        • I am going to have to respectfully disagree. Speaking as an aerodynamicist at a company that builds both jets and rockets.

          For the first, you need to figure out how airfoils work to produce lift (helicopter blades count in this category), and figure out how to move the air that surrounds your craft to produce thrust.

          All you need is thrust, lift is just one kind of thrust, the rotating blades of a helicopter, produce a lifting force which is the thrust that lifts the aircraft. Other sources of thrust wo
    • we achieved what many call the greatest achievement of mankind, we landed on the moon.

      I dunno man, have you ever seen Shaolin Soccer? [imdb.com]
    • it's like my dad always said, "a little competition never hurt anyone."

      Depends on the nature of the competition.

      For example, insanely stockpiling nuclear weapons nearly destroyed all of us. Even the Space Race involved fatalities that might have been averted if it wasn't a race. Today, any number of faulty products are shipped before they are ready in the name of competition. Athletes destroy their own bodies to seek a little bit of competitive edge.

      Point is, history has indeed shown that humans per

  • Wow ... (Score:4, Funny)

    by jmays ( 450770 ) * on Monday June 16, 2003 @02:51PM (#6215631)
    and to think ... they all have accomplished so much even without the support of N*SYNC. Amazing.

  • This is great news... (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 16, 2003 @02:51PM (#6215634)
    ...because the astronauts on the space station have been hungry for delivery for weeks.

  • I hope they are serious about space (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Lumpy ( 12016 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @02:51PM (#6215635) Homepage
    and I really hope everything goes perfect for them.

    Because it seems that China will be the only hope for real advances in space. The US program will never gear up to what it is supposed to be at.

    All I know is the thing that may do it, is china placing a moon base just might get the attention of the tubs of idiocy that sit in the congress and house of represenatives....
    • The US is hindered by a major factor; MONEY. I'm certain that technology is not a problem. NASA and its U.S. contractors are going to be paid a lot more than their China counterparts. With the US budget deficit in the trillions, the government has to be convinced that a space race is worth funding.
    • Getting China into the race might just make the U.S. program back into what it was in the 1960's. We will hopefully return to the moon, even if because we'll be damned if we let China set up a base there first. A race to Mars would be another good next step.

      Of course the reasons for going would be less than noble, just to show up a new rival, but the technological advances that would come out of the program would be of great benefit for everyone back home on Earth.

  • if there is not a race to mars (Score:5, Insightful)

    by the_2nd_coming ( 444906 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @02:51PM (#6215638) Homepage
    then I don't know what else could get NASA moving again.

    • How to get the US gummint interested in Mars (Score:4, Funny)

      by Tumbleweed ( 3706 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @03:15PM (#6215904)
      Start a rumour about WMD being stashed on Mars. I guarantee you, a manned Mars program gets major funding! But that would be handled through the Father-errr...Homeland Security Agency, not NASA. _Nothing_ is going to get NASA moving again.

      What else would get the US gummint on the space train: Oil on Mars! I can't see environmentalists being able to make a big dent in a drilling-on-Mars project. :)

      Why is China interested in space? No SARS there. No student protestors, either.

      Still, it'll be good to be able to get good Chinese food while in space. They should open up some restaurants at the LaGrange points and the Moon & Mars. General Tso's Space Chicken! :)
    • Remember, it's not a matter of getting NASA moving again. It's a matter of getting the Congress and the President moving again. If NASA had the bucks, they'd be ecstatic to build and operate a Mars manned mission! But they get very, very few bucks these days, and that's largely thanks to the Congress (and the President to a lesser extent, though I think the Executive has conditioned itself to diminishing returns from Congress since the end of the Space Race and just doesn't bother asking for much).
      Congre

  • Santa! This is what i want! (Score:4, Insightful)

    by eugene_t00ms ( 599365 ) <wishing4ascendance@gmail.com> on Monday June 16, 2003 @02:54PM (#6215667)
    Hopefully the Chinese pushing forward with developing their own space program might give NASA, ESA, and Multi-national Corporations the kick in the ass they need.

    can't wait to be able to say "We live in a world where a Chinaman has walked on the Moon." can you? :-|

  • Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @02:54PM (#6215668)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Those wacky Chinese! (Score:3, Funny)

    by Universal Nerd ( 579391 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @02:56PM (#6215701)
    Let the superpopulation of the moon begin!

    Huh huh...

  • Race may not be a good thing (Score:5, Interesting)

    by addie ( 470476 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @02:57PM (#6215715)
    Although the manned space program has been ridiculously successful in terms of preventing accidents, there have been 3 instances where small decisions have led to fatal mishaps. The Apollo launchpad fire, the Challenger, and of course Columbia. The more times we attempt these types of activities, the more accidents we will have. That said...

    I'm a space junkie, I love reading about anything exploration related. But national pride is not a good excuse for spending billions to go into space. Should we be celebrating the Chinese, or asking them why they aren't instead working on a way to contribute to the ISS program? Europe is heading for Mars news story [yahoo.com], and the US has already been there. How many different times do we need to accomplish the same goal under different flags?

    I applaud the Chinese for getting a man into space, this is by no means an easy task. But we have to look at priorities. I'd love to live in a world where competition wasn't the driving reason to succeed!

    • Re:Race may not be a good thing (Score:5, Insightful)

      by msheppard ( 150231 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @03:08PM (#6215839) Homepage Journal
      The only reason you are alive is becuase your ancestors were competitive and won.

      I am referring to the single celled organisms that COMPETED with the other single celled organisms and won. Then they formed multi-celled organisms and kicked the other multi-celled organisms butts (well, what was going to become a butt eventually)

      So you say: "I'd love to live in a world where competition wasn't the driving reason to succeed," and to be blunt, there is no life if we don't compete. At least not as we know it.

      M@

      • Re:Race may not be a good thing (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 16, 2003 @03:17PM (#6215937)
        Ironically YOU wouldn't exist if all the cells in your body didn't cooperate with each other. The real evolutionary steps came when there was cooperation: single cells forming multicellular organisms, animals forming groups, people forming tribes, etc. Competition only holds the status quo; it keeps things in a kind of entropy until the next big step forward.

        Alone I can build a house. We together can build a city.

        Furthermore, do you know what we call something that is so over compeditive that it cannot do anything BUT compete with everything?

        Cancer.

        • Cancer: Good point. I was trying to make the jump single-cell compitition to multi cell coperation, but still competing.

          M@
          • Lynn Margulis (famous microbiologist [and first wife of astronomer Carl Sagan, incidently]) wrote an article about what she rates as the five most dramatic steps forward in the evolution of life on Earth. I don't remember the whole list off the top of my head, but it included things like "motility" (going from just floating to moving under ones own control is a far bigger advance than, say, flying, which is just a refinement of motility). All five were not the result of competition but cooperation between
      • While the idea of evolution as an endless ass kicking contest holds sway with the Ted Nugent crowd it is neither rational nor an accurate protrayal of evolutionary processes. In the Darwinian sense competition is really a struggle of an organism against its changing environment. As the environment changes the organisms best capable of dealing with the changes survive. This is counterbalanced by the increased rate of reproduction that organisms closely attuned to a very specific set of environmental condi
    • That would be 3 incidents in the US. If I remember correctly, the Soviet Union is strongly suspected to have covered up deaths of astronauts.

      And the chinese are not doing the same goal as the US mission. The US mission was to reach the moon for Glory purposes and examination of the moon.

      The chinese mission is instead to improve their man mission space technology to be competitive with the US and russia. The moon is just a handy tourist attraction that is being used as a mile marker so that they will know

      • Re:Race may not be a good thing (Score:5, Insightful)

        by mikerich ( 120257 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @03:45PM (#6216297)
        If I remember correctly, the Soviet Union is strongly suspected to have covered up deaths of astronauts.

        Sorry, that was a myth put out by the Americans to make the Soviets look slipshod and backwards. All of the supposed cosmonauts who were killed before the flight of Yuri Gagarin have been found to be fictional and all of the flights since then have been accounted for.

        The Soviets have lost 4 men in space and no more. They were Vladimir Komarov on Soyuz 1 on April 24, 1967. Soyuz 1 flew well before the ship was ready, it was known to be faulty, but Brezhnev insisted that it was launched to keep up the pace against the Americans. Soyuz 1 suffered a series of faults ending in her parachutes becoming entangled, she crashed to Earth killing Komorov instantly.

        The second group of fatalities were Georgi Dobrovolsky, Vladislav Volkov, and Viktor Patsayev on-board Soyuz 11. They were the second crew of Salyut 1, the World's first space station (Skylab was second). After 23 days in orbit, Soyuz 11 returned to Earth, but a pyrotechnic malfunctioned during separation of the orbital and re-entry modules; an air valve was stuck open and the module gradually depressurised. The ship landed automatically, but the crew were found to be dead when the capsule was opened.

        And that's it.

        Best wishes,
        Mike.

    • Although the manned space program has been ridiculously successful in terms of preventing accidents, there have been 3 instances where small decisions have led to fatal mishaps. The Apollo launchpad fire, the Challenger, and of course Columbia. The more times we attempt these types of activities, the more accidents we will have. That said...

      With that kind of tought we would not have airplanes, sea boats, even cars. Do you think that the first airplane was the safest thing in the world? A lot of people di
    • or asking them why they aren't instead working on a way to contribute to the ISS program?

      You are neglecting the strong psychological component to economics. If the Chinese successfully lead a manned space program, this will show the world that China and its people are ready and able to undertake complex technological endeavors. This translates directly into international investment into China and business cooperation with Chinese companies, which translates directly into booming economic strength.

      I for
    • And how many times hasthe Millikin Oil Drop experiment been done? How many experimental aircraft have broken the speed of sound? If you want to be part of certain communities, you have to do things yourself, the hard way. That means launching and recovering a capsule, launching and recovering a live specimen, sending man into orbit. Although you can buy your way into any industry to a certain degree, you have neither the experience or the credibility until you've achieved certain goals. After all, this

  • Also in the news: (Score:3, Informative)

    by Rxke ( 644923 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @02:58PM (#6215723) Homepage
    on spacedaily.com : Arianespace, Boeing and Mitsubishi Heavy Plan alliance. By the way, Arianespace is already planning to work with the russian Proton guys... Looks like this kind of cooperation could be interesting in the long run for bigger projects, if this works out, a multi business way of thinking for e.g. future Mars missions wouldn't be looked upon as farfetched as it used to be (today, that is)

  • Space race (Score:2, Interesting)

    by aplank ( 678451 )
    A wise man once said "Space should not be a race It should be a journey" :-P

    • Re:Space race (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Daetrin ( 576516 )
      So instead of saying the space race is heating up, we should say "It looks like the space meander is idling on luke-warm"?
  • There is a lot to be said for unmanned flight. Just because the Chinese are getting ready to send a manned spacecraft up does not mean that we should assume that this race is good. In reality it costs a LOT more to send a manned flight into space (safety concerns). That's money that might be better spent in other places. I can understand if lots of you are skeptical about it given where Congress chooses to spend money. Still, I would think that it might be worth a pause before deciding this is a race w
    • In reality it costs a LOT more to send a manned flight into space (safety concerns).


      Then, get some cheaper, more expandable astronauts... Some deathrow residents... You know... You might make it, you might not. If you make it we'll give you life instead of the needle ?

      The amount of security devices on the shuttle if I'm not mistaken exceeds the amount of other devices.

      Build cheaper shuttles, get expandable bodies, profit!

      • Then, get some cheaper, more expandable astronauts... Some deathrow residents... You know... You might make it, you might not. If you make it we'll give you life instead of the needle?

        This is pretty wicked, you know?

        I remember, as a child, asking my dad why didn't they use deathrow residents for the cint-eastwood-cowboys movies ... that way the shootings wold look a lot more real!

        I won't copy here his answer ...

        • I remember, as a child, asking my dad why didn't they use deathrow residents for the cint-eastwood-cowboys movies ... that way the shootings wold look a lot more real! I won't copy here his answer ...

          Let's face it. Someone condemn to deathrow has somehow taken away alot from society.
          They're also very costly to maintain (prison maintenance, guards, food, etc etc).
          They've already been sentenced to death (while I may not agree with it, those in power elected by the majority do.) and are a weight on socie

  • I hope not (Score:2, Interesting)

    by slam smith ( 61863 )
    it looks like the space race may be heating back up?

    I sure hope not. The space races of the past did little to foster cats(cheap access to space). And this won't either. It will be like the apollo missions to the moon, flag and footprints and never to return. I want space tourism, industry, and sustainable high level of commerce and privatization. The only one of these three items that has a potential of doing that is the X-Prize, because it fosters private industry not just feed the bueracracy that
    • From what I've read, space tourism for non-boy band members and real privitization won't happen as long as we're using chemical rockets. The only viable non-rocket based system that I've seen is the space elevator.

      Hopefully, if China puts people in space and maybe pulls off a stem cell breakthrough, people in the Western world will stop dismissing China as a third world backwater and get off thier butts to compete.

      -B

  • Moon (Score:5, Interesting)

    by FTL ( 112112 ) <slashdot@neil.fras e r . name> on Monday June 16, 2003 @03:01PM (#6215767) Homepage
    If you are trying to figure out where the Chinese are headed, all you have to do is look at this picture of a Shenzhou rollout [astronautix.com], then compare with this picture of a certain NASA rollout [kosmo.cz]. Creepy, huh?

    I wish them the best of luck.

    • Re:Moon (Score:5, Informative)

      by sohp ( 22984 ) <snewton@io . c om> on Monday June 16, 2003 @03:39PM (#6216202) Homepage
      Superficially they look similar, but compare the numbers:

      CZ-2F: Diameter: 3.4 m, length 62.0 m. LEO Payload: 8,400 kg
      Saturn V: Diameter: 10.1 m, length 102.0 m, LEO Payload: 118,000 kg(!)

      If you removed the Apollo spacecraft and the 3rd stage (S-IVB) from the Saturn it still wouldn't fit through the CZ-2F's little door.

      • Nevermind the numbers. Just look at the vehicles at the bottom of the picture. Compare the size of the bus to the size of the rocket in the Chinese picture. In the NASA picture there is a pickup truck there, but you barely even notice it because everything else is so huge.

    • What's with the doors? Why not just the one big door, why have all the consecutively smaller doors as you go up? Just curious...

  • shameful (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Boromir son of Faram ( 645464 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @03:02PM (#6215778) Homepage
    The Slashdot community should be ashamed. This story has only been up a short while, and already I'm seeing references to rockets made of bamboo, astronauts eating freeze-dried dog meat, and even the despicable phrase, "runar rander." This sort of bigotry and racism is unbefitting of one of the most respectworthy technical communities on the web today.

    You are probably all just jealous because you lost your jobs to better trained immigrants, or because you always strike out with the cute Chinese ladies. Sad.
    • So? Set your tolerance higher... If you read at 2 or 3, most of the blatant trolls/flamebait/slurs will not be visible, and you don't have to be offended.

      An alternate theory is that you recognize that racism exists in the world, and give it the attention it deserves, none.

  • Anyone know how to say this in chinese? I want a ride up damnit!!

  • 2061 (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Horizon_99 ( 58767 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @03:09PM (#6215847)
    Anybody else reminded of 2061? Bring on the monoliths!

    My god it's full of stars!

    • Re:2061 (Score:3, Informative)

      by Have Blue ( 616 )
      You mean 2010. And hopefully this mission won't end the same way Tsien did...
      • yeah you're right, and yeah I wish them better luck than the Tsien, must be a bitch to be eaten by a big whateverthehellthatwas! ;)

  • Political Space Racing (Score:4, Insightful)

    by targo ( 409974 ) <targo_t@nosPaM.hotmail.com> on Monday June 16, 2003 @03:12PM (#6215879) Homepage
    Sometimes I wish the Soviets would have gotten to the Moon first because then Americans wouldn't have had any other choice but to put a man on Mars to save face.
    Either that or a nuclear strike against the USSR (I'm not kidding, there were people who seriously suggested that to the US administration if the Soviet Moon program got too far) because otherwise the political situation would have been intolerable. It's all political, science is a third-rate consideration, and noble goals like actual expansion to the space are not even mentioned. But still, I wish them luck, any step forward for whatever reasons is better than our current self-admiring stagnation (like how long can we hype the moon landing?? It is still the main exhibit in all space-related museums after 35 years!)

  • Isn't this a Soyuz? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by boomgopher ( 627124 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @03:15PM (#6215911) Journal
    The Shenzhou spacecraft looks just like Russia's Soyuz space vehicle - bummer.
    When are we going to get some new space vehicles, damnit?

    Zzzzz.....

    • Re:Isn't this a Soyuz? (Score:5, Informative)

      by mikerich ( 120257 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @03:52PM (#6216419)
      Yes it is a heavily modified Soyuz. They got it because Soyuz is cheap, simple, tough as old boots and does the job. And the Russians needed the money - sounds like a perfect match.

      Don't forget Soyuz was never just intended for one purpose (like Apollo), it is a family of spacecraft that can be configured to several purposes - including, had the Soviets been able to tame their N1 booster, fly around and orbit the Moon.

      In many respects Soyuz was far superior to the Apollo capsule, so it makes a great start for a country with limited resources to get into the manned space program.

      Best wishes,
      Mike.

      • Re:Isn't this a Soyuz? (Score:4, Informative)

        by MtViewGuy ( 197597 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @05:55PM (#6217892)
        From pictures I've seen, the Soyuz spacecraft was definitely much roomier than the Apollo spacecraft, given there are two pressurized sections of the spacecraft. It was fortunate the the Russians were able to overcome the early chequered history of the spacecraft, given the Soyuz 1 crash and the unfortunate air leak that killed the Soyuz 11 cosmonauts. The newest Soyuz T-4 variant owes almost nothing to the original Soyuz design with its interior design.
    • When are we going to get some new space vehicles, damnit?

      I completely against any idea to satisfy your aestetic demands. The spacecraft must do the job - fly up or land down. Safily (not like Shuttles). As for today, Soyuz design is the proof of safity (comparing to Shuttles). Therefore, don't invest money to anything which is more complicated than Soyuz (at least for now).

      Speaking about money. Investment (and ROI!) is the biggest problem in the space industry. I would rather ask:

      When will we have we

  • Red star rising... (Score:3, Funny)

    by macshune ( 628296 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @03:17PM (#6215935) Journal
    (reuters)-BEIJING-The Chinese government today announced rumors that a manned spaceflight is to take place sometime during the next long while.

    "Yes, the rumors exist. Sometime in the next long while we will start to seriously think about the possibility of putting a Chinese man somewhere above the trophosphere," an undisclosed official with possible ties to the Chinese government presumably stated.
    It remains to be seen if China can make good on its possible intentions to consider manned spaceflight. Only two other countries have done so, the USA and Russia.

    • Been There, Done That (Score:5, Informative)

      by Chris Y Taylor ( 455585 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @03:38PM (#6216201) Homepage
      "putting a Chinese man somewhere above the trophosphere"

      A hate to break it to the undisclosed Chinese official, but a Chinese man has already been above the troposphere. We sent him up in the Space Shuttle. He is my former boss, and all around great guy Taylor Wang. http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/wang-t.html

      He is now a prof. at Vanderbilt University, where I worked for his dept. as a student worker for several years.

  • Most modern thingy around, for now (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Rxke ( 644923 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @03:19PM (#6215958) Homepage
    Consider: Space Shuttle: concieved around 70's, built 80's Soyuz: 60's, minor upgrades, still based on old model. Shendzou: 90's, 00's? Granted, it seems to be based on the soyuz, but Chinese say they built it themselves, and this seems to be the case: it's considerably bigger, more modern electronics et.c. Who would ever have thought that the Chinese would be flying the most up to date spacethingy, it seems absurd, but it's a fact. How the world has changed since the 80's...

    • The space shuttle was actually conceived in the 60's, I think and built in the 70s. The first flights were in the early 80s.

      By the way, the space shuttles have been updated quite a bit over the years. I believe each shuttle has undergone one or two complete rebuilds in their lives. All the old CRT displays were replaced with LCD models, etc. Now, the thermal protection technology hasn't been improved much, if at all, but when Columbia was lost, it was a much different shuttle than the Columbia that wa

  • ....to the 20th century. Good to see a new member of the club.
  • Well, since everyone believes they Nasa havent been to the moon maybe we can have a new Spacerace!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • sending manned-flight to the space will be a huge step for china, as they'll be even closer to checking out the moon, which for centuries, is believe to be the resort for the Moon Goddess and those rabbits.

    the implication could be huge, as chinese are known to be very creative and inventive in terms of technologies, but they're somehow restricted at the moment.

  • titan (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Flunitrazepam ( 664690 )
    "Between this, the X-Prize, and multiple launches of Mars probes in the last few weeks, it looks like the space race may be heating back up?"

    Stephen Baxter's wonderful book Titan starts out with the first Chinese manned spacecraft orbit of earth, which does in fact spark a new military build up comparable to the American/Russian era.

    I can't recommend this book highly enough, it is remarkable to me how time and again how close Sci-Fi authors come in their visions of the future of our race.

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You mean you didn't *know* she was off making lots of little phone companies?

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