Posted on 11/02/2011 7:17:19 PM PDT by QuickSandWillow
China has joined two space vehicles together in orbit for the first time.
The unmanned Shenzhou 8 craft, launched earlier this week, made contact with the Tiangong-1 space lab at 1729 GMT. The union occurred over China itself.
Being able to dock two space vehicles together is a necessary capability for China if it wants to start building a space station towards the decade's end.
Although no astronauts were in the Shenzhou craft this time, future missions will carry people.
Tuesday's procedure (Beijing time 0029, Thursday) took place at an altitude of about 340km. It was automated but overseen on the ground at the Beijing Aerospace Flight Control Centre.
The vehicles used radar and optical sensors to compute their proximity to each other and guide their final approach and contact. A video feed from orbit showed the final moments of the vehicles coming together.
Shenzhou 8 was the active craft in the docking. It fired its thrusters to push its front end towards the docking port of Tiangong-1. Once the vehicles' docking rings had made a good capture, 12 hooks were deployed to fix the craft in place. Protruding pins made electrical connections.
From first contact to confirmation of a seal took about 10 minutes.
Shenzhou 8 and Tiangong-1 will spend two weeks circling the globe together before Shenzhou 8 heads back to Earth
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
Ok... so the Chinese and the Russians are in space, and the US is grounded.
How is this not an issue of national security?
We fund China’s military and space program.
America supplies the money.
Because we are rubes, about trade.
I actually watched 2001: A Space Odyssey a couple nights ago. The jump-cut from the thrown bone-club to the orbital weapons platform had People’s Liberation Army Air Force insignia on it. In the book 2010, China sends a manned mission to Europa at the books start and tensions with the Chinese feature in the background of the story.
Don't worry. God is not mocked.
Complete Leftist BS! They loved to say, "we can put a man on the moon but can't (insert cause of the day here)"
An absolute disgrace. Our manned Space Program was so amazing. I grew up in the "Intel Community" and once my dad passes I am going to write a book about the people I got to meet and the things I saw. But one of the coolest things I got to do was go on a tour of JSC with Gene Kranz and one of the coolest things he told us that sums up the American Space Program was the glide dynamics of the Space Shuttle. The glide ratio of a Mac Truck is better than the Space Shuttle. What that actually means is that if you took a full size Mac up in a C-130 and drove it out of the back at 30,000 feet you would have an easier time landing it at KSC then you would the Space Shuttle. But we routinely took took 7 people, strapped them inside a big box, intentionally ignited 5 hydrogen bombs to use the force of the explosions to throw them 225 miles above the face of the Earth at 225,375 miles per hour. About 12 days later we have them re-ignite 3 of those bombs to cause them to plummet back to Earth with no power aiming for a strip of concrete 2.3 miles long. They have two options, do it perfectly or die.
We threw that away for what???? Nobody else on earth could do it. It made us superior to even their best ideas and that's what Obama and the Left hated. I think it is probably the biggest crime he has committed against our country and mankind in general.
In the words of our fearless leader JimRob, "FUBO!"
Or something like that....
It had to start somewhere and it started with HIM.
Being fortunate to watch many orbiters land, I referred to the approaching shuttle as "the flying bathtub!"
Thank you, Bill Clinton, Bernie Schwartz, and the Loral Corporation for helping China overcome its staging programs and get a craft into orbit.
I dont blame them. Good for the Chinese for stepping up where we dithered.
It’s not like we were ever serious since 1974.
Paid for by Walmart.
Q:Where does Walmart get its money? A:Millions of American customers. Walmart provides a service millions of people want so you do the Liberal Thug thing and attack an American based business that employs tens of thousands of Americans.
Wake up people. Tariffs.
I need to ask Jim why he keeps OWS people registered if Romney supports are booted. Why are know-it-all tax raising arrogant hard-core Marxists Leftists who sincerely believe the world would be a better place if everyone else simply agreed 100% with you still here?
And a whole lot more.
Really? What other liberty robbing Police State Thuggery will make you satisfied? Will you require Americans to only buy union made American source goods that have met your personal approval? Only when the US economy is completely dead and people are eating each other to survive will you consider your mission accomplished?
Tariffs are a profoundly stupid idea. Tariffs were a major cause of the War Between The States. The North followed your advice because they couldn't compete with proto-Walmart Europe. Europe reciprocated with an equally onerous tariff on the South's agricultural products. The tariffs greatly damaged the South's economy leading it in to desperation to break from the North which imposed the tariffs in the first place. So you are all for Americans dividing up the nation again and killing each other, right?
Where in the US other than Hawaii is coffee or tea grown? Going to bump up a huge tax on bananas and other seasonal crops like apples from New Zealand? OK, so Americans have to starve and be caffeine deprived and be without certain produce to satisfy your vanity.
How about Rare Earth Minerals? Going to tax the crap out of those industry critical resources because we can't mine them here? So your ego has now crushed many domestic high-tech companies or forced them to leave to buy their critical materials elsewhere.
You want energy prices to skyrocket because you demand confiscatory tribute for imported oil? That will win you the favor of people having to pay $6/gallon or more at the pump.
Because of environmental regulation and oppressive labor laws the cost differential between Chinese and domestic made solar panels is so large while the ROI on solar is so non-competitive now, that the continued mandates for energy suppliers to increase their portfolio with "renewable" energy sources will jack up energy rates so high that what few industries in the US that remain will seriously have to consider relocating to a less insane country. Meanwhile the welfare deadbeats will default and expect the few remaining Producers to underwrite their electricity costs while also paying hefty increases to power their own homes and businesses. So what pleases you is knowing that hungry Americans will be freezing in the dark.
What other areas of the economy do you wish to destroy? Let's see, if we slap massive tariffs on Chinese goods, what possible benefit do you see punishing a major holder of our national debt? War? Economic catastrophe?
Tariffs are diplomatic tools and a way to reward friends, cultivate markets and establish trade rules. Ever hear of the phrase "Most Favored Nation"? So you want to punish our long time allies and trading partners? Does it excite you tof he prospect of injecting mass chaos into an economy made up of symbiotic transnational trade alliances? A manufacturer in the US has written a contract to deliver a certain quantity of goods at a certain price, but the manufacturer relies on materials found overseas. You now killed that company by stealing their margin in the form of a new Federal tax. How many people will that unemploy? Are you giddy about ruining the lives of thousands of people who lost their job because you wanted to destroy the business with yet another oppressive tax?
Do you seriously expect other nations to sit back and let the US to hammer their export markets and not expect them to retaliate? Do you hate mankind so much that you want everyone around the world to suffer high prices and shoddy goods?
The Greeks only real thing of value they export is Olives. Lets levy tariffs on Greek olives just to make sure we do our part to push that economy over a cliff. That ought to go well for the global economy and NATO.
How many television manufacturers are there in the US? If you answered "None" then you also admitted that you want people to suffer a hickey on their next expensive home appliance. Given that most consumer goods are manufactured or assembled overseas, its pretty clear that you want to drain the already diminished bank-accounts of Americans in increased taxes and tributes to an already monstrously large Fe'ral Government.
Basically you are worse than the OWS Marxists because you aren't just selfishly demanding to have your bills paid and be given a sinecure - you want to punish, tax, and destroy America just to satisfy your own vanity and ego.
We want no taxes that increase the price of goods. Your tariffs would destroy our economy.
Straw man much?
Tariffs were the largest source of federal revenue from the 1790s to the eve of World War I, until it was surpassed by income taxes.
Imagine the work that goes into such precise marching of such LARGE groups. They are focused, but focused on what? More WalMarts? Think again.
We are free-traders in a protectionist world. We are losing now.
Walk through a WalMart and find the percentage of US Made (not American made) goods. What you find will tell you something; choose to listen.
More like Gemini VIII, but without the out of control spin.
The West had it easy after the Second World War (little competition from the rest of the World). In the 1970’s, the Asian Tigers gave us a glimpse of our future, but we refused to respond smartly to the challenge - after all, they were a bunch of small insignificant countries.
If we learned anything from the challenge of the Asian tigers, we would be better placed to compete against China, but sadly, we learned little.
With Obama, we are in twice the trouble.
Pass us in what respect? Technologically? Militarily?
How many nukes can China put on the US Mainland in a one hour period? How many nuclear powered subs can they put to sea at one time?
Do they have a SINGLE aircraft that can shoot down a US F-16 built in 1985?
How many Battle Groups can they put in the Gulf of Mexico and sustain them for 6 months?
Think they've figured out how to shoot down a B-2 or F-22 yet?
The only thing China is passing...is gas.
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