I just heard on NPR that about ten minutes ago China secretly launched their first man into space.
http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/space/10/14/china.countdown/index.html
I wish them the best.
Here’s to peaceful exploration.
I’m the only one in my house that cares. But cares I does.
Good for them, says I.
[ul]
[sup]It’s about damn time![/sup][/ul]
Great. Now there are commies in space in again. :mad:
Yay! Next up India. And soon, MOON CASINOS!
Yes, and many congrats to them!
One of the articles that CNN links to says that some think this might spark another space race… let’s hope so! That would be the best news I’ve heard in a LONG time!
Yes, while people starve, they take money out of their economy and spend it on enormous unnecessary projects they can’t really afford. I hope they succeed, but it’s a miserable and irresponsible enterprise in China’s current position.
So, we have astronauts and cosmonauts, did we figure out how the Chinese call theirs? I heard “Taikonaut” that derives from the Chinese characters “taikong,” meaning space or cosmos but that is not official, the Chinese press has so far used the term “yuhangyuan,”
On preview: Fang, I heard that at the same time they are doing massive hydroelectric projects that are necessary to raise the standard of living, after that energy (and the production that will come from that) is unleashed, this space program will look as it is: frugal, and I base that on the recent Scientific American article describing the Chinese space program.
[Jon Stewart]
…And so, on behalf of the entire Western world, please allow me to be the first to say, “China, WELCOME TO THE 1960s!!!”
[/JS]
(Actually that might have been Jimmy Fallon. Not sure.)
GIGObuster, I read “Taikonauts” in an AP article that didn’t have a “maybe” qualifier on it.
Congratulations to China, and best wishes for a safe landing. It’s a remarkable achievement. And it’s nice to see some competition in this field!
As for the “people are starving” argument, you can look at the project as an investment. The American aerospace industry owes a lot of its technological expertise to the expensive NASA and Air Force projects.
Where does that leave Europe and Japan? :rolleyes:
According to spacedaily.com, the astronaut (Taikonaut? Yuhangyuan? Yuhangnaut?) is one Yang Liwei. I don’t know which is his given name and which is his family name.
Oh, and scr4…Europe and Japan have sent people into space—onboard U.S. and Russian spacecraft. So you might say that they’ve ridden out of the 60s, space-wise, on the coattails of the superpowers.*
That’s the polite way of saying "ESA and NASDA are NASA’s btches." 
Slight correction to the OP. Nothing secret about it. Our own little daily newspaper in Oregon carried a story about the pending launch last Friday when the day was decided and almost a week before that when Associated Press first had the story about an impending launch. ( I know because I had to hunt up some photos for the story from Xinhua, the official Chinese press agency).
But it was a story I was delighted to report. Check out the thorough investigation in the current Atlantic about the hubris and mismanagement at NASA that led to the most recent shuttle disaster. They may be our team, but they could use some serious competition, and there’s nothing like a good challenge to loosen Congressional purse strings. Hey, I’d rather have it go for space exploration than more misjudged military adventurism.
As I mentioned in this thread they call them “astronauts” in English and something completely different in Chinese.
It truly is exciting and I wish them the best of luck! India should follow soon.
The 50’s?
[sub]At least you get to wear poodle skirts, listen to doowhop and get neato haircuts…[/sub]
I’ve been waiting to hear how this went. Good for them! I hope this gets everybody else off their asses and we can get a real space program going again. Not just to beat the “evil Commies,” though an element of competition might not be a bad thing. It worked once.