[RightWhale]

More news from the People's Republic. Expect space news to increase over the years ahead. Expect China to eventually take the lead in space exploration and to build a permanent moon base. Expect NASA to die out.

[Lazamataz]

Expect space news to increase over the years ahead. Expect China to eventually take the lead in space exploration and to build a permanent moon base. Expect NASA to die out.

Naw, I'm too busy expecting lots of casualties from Afghanistan now, and Iraq in 1990.

[Enemy Of The State]

na...watch for expensive fireworks similar to challenger!.

The chinese have never successfully orbited in space, they have a few big blunders to make first. They are just making one huge bottle rocket.........BOOM!

[Magnum44]

China has yet to put a man in space, and they want to build a space station and colonize the moon, and on their own no less? This is great IMO. Like the Old Soviet Union, they will pour huge resources down this hole and still be 40 years behind the US/West in Space tech. Better they pour it down this than a formidable navy or airforce, goals much easier to reach.

Anyone who has dealt with chinese tech knows it is of very poor QC. They may be able to dominate the sneaker market. Nobody concerns themselves with the quality control of $10.00 tennis shoes. But customers willing to spend billions on space hardware would not touch chinese tech with a ten foot pole. They hardly have the concept of a 'clean room' for any manufacturing process in that country.

They tried to liscense building russian fighters once and had to send the finished products to Russia in order to 'fix' them so they could fly.

[Cruising Speed]

I wouldn't be surprised if the Chinese eventually made a lunar landing. I'm just wondering if they'll ask the United Nations for permission to land because the entire lunar surface is U.N. owned and all commercial exploitation is specifically banned by the U.N. Moon Treaty.

[newwahoo]

I don't think the Chicoms are only interested in space. I'm sure others know more about the technical aspects, but I'd guess that these "improved launch vehicles" would make better ICBMs as well.

[jalisco555]

This may prove to be the catalyst for a revitalized US manned space program.

[TEXICAN II]

If used for economic purposes, they could bury us with unexpected shipments for Wal-Mart.

If they use it for the military, we could burn it up on launch with our laser equiped 747's. But the NWO types would be really unhappy with that action.

[deadrock]

Sponsored by Wal-Mart.

[Brett66]

This is a picture of one of the boosters they refer to in this article:

The CZ-5-5.0 heavy launcher would use the 5.0 m core stage together with a number of modular 2.25 m or 3.35 m diameter stages as strap-ons. Maximum payload with four 3.35 m diameter strap-ons is given as 23 tonnes to low earth orbit or 11 tonnes to geosynchronous transfer orbit. Lower payloads could be achieved by using 2 x 2.25 m plus 2 x 3.35 m strap-on stages; four x 2.25 m strap-on stages, or two of either stage. Growth to 40 tonnes payload would be possible if eight 3.35 m strap-ons could be used. The CZ-5 core stage is similar in dimensions and mass to the Ariane 5 core, but powered by four engines instead of the single engine used in Ariane.

CZ-5-5.0

[Willie Green]

Expect space news to increase over the years ahead. Expect China to eventually take the lead in space exploration and to build a permanent moon base. Expect NASA to die out.

Great Expectations!!!

Who cares that China has over a billion mouths to feed?
Let 'em squander their resources on the moon.
Been there, done that.

Nothing up there but a gigantic, barren rock.
If the Chinese can figure out how to eat it, let 'em have it.

[Moonman62]

More news from the People's Republic. Expect space news to increase over the years ahead. Expect China to eventually take the lead in space exploration and to build a permanent moon base. Expect NASA to die out.

This is just a wish list of things the US is doing or has already done. The fact is the space program no longer drives research and technology the way it once did. The glass cockpit in the Space Shuttle was derived from commercial airliners fer cryin' out loud, and corrupt senators get joy rides in the name of "medical research." NASA is simply shrinking to its proper size -- reflecting the reality of what we can efficiently get out of it versus what we get out of other research programs for the same amount of money.

And as far as China goes, it would be much better for them if they dropped their totalitarian government and shared in the technological wealth of the free world rather than reinvent the wheel forty years after the fact.

[Tailgunner Joe]