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China Quiet on Eve of Space Flight
LA Times ^ | October 6, 2003 | AP

Posted on 10/06/2003 1:27:01 PM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife

BEIJING -- The launch could happen as early as this weekend from a remote base in the Gobi Desert. China's first manned space flight would carry one "taikonaut" - or as many three. It could last from hours to several days.

Other than that, the Chinese government isn't really saying.

After 11 years of planning to join the space-faring elite, China is on the brink of making history and reaping a propaganda windfall. But as the hour approaches, the communist government is staying silent about a date and other details, wary of risking the damage of public setbacks.

……Success has encouraged Chinese researchers who want support for sending probes to the moon and Mars.

On Sunday, the secretary-general of the government's Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense was quoted by a state news agency as issuing a rare public affirmation of official interest in such ambitions.

"In the future," the China News Service quoted Wang Shuquan as saying, "China will conduct tests on lunar-landing flight."

(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: china; gobidesert; space
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Shenzhou Secrets: China Prepares for First Human Spaceflight
1 posted on 10/06/2003 1:27:02 PM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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2 posted on 10/06/2003 1:29:03 PM PDT by Support Free Republic (Your support keeps Free Republic going strong!)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
China's first manned space flight would carry one "taikonaut" - or as many three. It could last from hours to several days.

Plenty of wiggle room here. It will be announced successful if at least one "taikonaut" survives one orbit.

3 posted on 10/06/2003 1:31:24 PM PDT by Fitzcarraldo
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
I expect at the conclusion they will follow the Soviet line and say they landed only 10 meters from their planned spot.
4 posted on 10/06/2003 1:34:39 PM PDT by theDentist (Liberals can sugarcoat sh** all they want. I'm not biting.)
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To: theDentist
And if China's first manned mission explodes, it was unmanned.
5 posted on 10/06/2003 1:36:00 PM PDT by dead (I've got my eye out for Mullah Omar.)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
Is it the LA Slimes or the Chinese who can't cope with a schedule?
6 posted on 10/06/2003 1:38:57 PM PDT by <1/1,000,000th%
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
Someone should tell China that there is no grass on the moon.
7 posted on 10/06/2003 1:44:25 PM PDT by ditto h
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
But China would still be only the third country capable of manned space flight, vaulting it ahead of Japan and European countries, which have only unmanned programs.

Oh, I'd reckon the Japanese are quite capable of it.

And China would be accomplishing something that even the United States, with its space shuttle fleet grounded following the Columbia disaster, can't do right now.

I'm sure the LA Times just gets giddy every time they think about the Chinese beating us at something.

8 posted on 10/06/2003 1:49:35 PM PDT by Prodigal Son
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To: Prodigal Son
I'm sure the LA Times just gets giddy every time they think about the Chinese beating us at something.

No doubt.

9 posted on 10/06/2003 1:51:23 PM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
In the future," the China News Service quoted Wang Shuquan as saying, "China will conduct tests on lunar-landing flight."

And only about 4 decades after we did it, why are they bothering?
10 posted on 10/06/2003 1:54:08 PM PDT by armyboy (Coming to you from Sustainer Army Airfield Balad, Iraq. God Bless The U.S.A!)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
In the future," the China News Service quoted Wang Shuquan as saying, "China will conduct tests on lunar-landing flight."

And only about 4 decades after we did it, why are they bothering?
11 posted on 10/06/2003 1:54:09 PM PDT by armyboy (Coming to you from Sustainer Army Airfield Balad, Iraq. God Bless The U.S.A!)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
In the future," the China News Service quoted Wang Shuquan as saying, "China will conduct tests on lunar-landing flight."

And only about 4 decades after we did it, why are they bothering?
12 posted on 10/06/2003 1:54:10 PM PDT by armyboy (Coming to you from Sustainer Army Airfield Balad, Iraq. God Bless The U.S.A!)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
In the future," the China News Service quoted Wang Shuquan as saying, "China will conduct tests on lunar-landing flight."

And only about 4 decades after we did it, why are they bothering?
13 posted on 10/06/2003 1:54:25 PM PDT by armyboy (Posting from Sustainer Army Airfield Balad, Iraq. God Bless The U.S.A!)
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To: armyboy
Manned space flight worth the risks By Jake Garn *** HUMAN SPACE FLIGHT is not a luxury. Nor is it a whim, passing fad or eccentric hobby. Make no mistake, human space flight is critical to the future well-being of the United States and, ultimately, the world. The continuation of human space flight is a necessity.

For those who accept that premise, it is vital that we get the space shuttle flying again as safely and as quickly as possible. Our very future may depend on it.

To not understand or acknowledge that Earth is but a stepping stone for humankind is to ignore history, reality and Manifest Destiny. Through age, natural catastrophe or by our own hand, life on Earth has a finite amount of time left. For the human species to go on, we must go out into the far and promising reaches of space. We will do this, or we will eventually perish on the stepping stone adjacent to endless possibilities and salvation.

....Human space flight is not a luxury, and the People's Republic of China, above all others, seems to recognize that. The PRC is poised to launch its first astronauts, and with them launch potentially the most ambitious plan ever for humans in space.

They have their eyes on the moon, Mars and beyond. The question for our country is: Do we cede the future of human space flight, and the future in general, to them or another nation?***

14 posted on 10/06/2003 1:56:29 PM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: dead
"And if China's first manned mission explodes, it was unmanned."

And if asked why the "unmanned" mission exploded, China will say there was no mission at all, nothing was scheduled to launch... It was all just western media hype. And the Times will report that as fact too.
15 posted on 10/06/2003 1:58:32 PM PDT by M1Tanker (Modern "progressive" liberalism is just NAZIism without the "twisted cross")
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To: Prodigal Son
Oh, I'd reckon the Japanese are quite capable of it.

And they'd build their own hardware, instead of buying a kit from the Russians.

16 posted on 10/06/2003 1:58:46 PM PDT by Moonman62
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To: armyboy
And only about 4 decades after we did it, why are they bothering?

Same reason we did: so that they can say they did it. It's an expression of national will, national pride, and also a very valuable means for uniting a populace toward a common goal.

Plus which -- secondarily, it must be noted -- they'll probably learn a lot.

17 posted on 10/06/2003 1:59:25 PM PDT by r9etb
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To: armyboy
And only about 4 decades after we did it, why are they bothering?

Because eventually someone will pick an unused desert and build a launch platform for an Orion rocket.

Once they do that the first 'shot' will put something the size of an aircraft carrier into space.

18 posted on 10/06/2003 2:00:25 PM PDT by Centurion2000 (Virtue untested is innocence)
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To: Centurion2000
China Waging War on Space-Based Weapons***The PLA also is experimenting with other types of satellite killers: land-based, directed-energy weapons and "micro-satellites" (search) that can be used as kinetic energy weapons. According to the latest (July 2003) assessment by the U.S. Defense Department, China will probably be able to field a direct-ascent anti-satellite system (search) in the next two to six years.

Such weapons would directly threaten what many believe would be America's best form of ballistic-missile defense: a system of space-based surveillance and tracking sensors, connected with land-based sensors and space-based missile interceptors. Such a system could negate any Chinese missile attack on the U.S. homeland.

China may be a long way from contemplating a ballistic missile attack on the U.S. homeland. But deployment of American space-based interceptors also would negate the missiles China is refitting to threaten Taiwan and U.S. bases in Okinawa and Guam. And there's the rub, as far as the PLA is concerned.

Clearly, Beijing's draft treaty to ban deployment of space-based weapons is merely a delaying tactic aimed at hampering American progress on ballistic-missile defense while its own scientists develop effective countermeasures.

What Beijing hopes to gain from this approach is the ability to disrupt American battlefield awareness--and its command and control operations--and to deny the U.S. access to the waters around China and Taiwan should the issue of Taiwan's sovereignty lead to conflict between the two Chinas.

China's military thinkers are probably correct: The weaponization of space is inevitable. And it's abundantly clear that, draft treaties and pious rhetoric notwithstanding, they're doing everything possible to position themselves for dominance in space. That's worth keeping in mind the next time they exhort "peace-loving nations" to stay grounded.***

China's PLA Sees Value in Pre-emptive Strike Strategy [Full Text] WASHINGTON, Aug. 11, 2003 - The military strategy of "shock and awe" used to stun the Iraqi military in the opening campaign of Operation Iraqi Freedom might be used by the Chinese if military force is needed to bring Taiwan back under communist control.

According to the released recently The Annual Report on the Military Power of the People's Republic of China, the country's military doctrine now stresses elements such as "surprise, deception and pre- emption." Furthermore, the report states that Beijing believes that "surprise is crucial" for the success of any military campaign. Taiwan, located off the coast of mainland China, claimed independence from the communist country in 1949. The island has 21 million people and its own democratic government.

China, with 1.3 billion people, claims sovereignty over the tiny island, sees Taiwan as a breakaway province and has threatened to use military force against Taiwan to reunify the country. And China's force against Taiwan could come as a surprise attack.

But "China would not likely initiate any military action unless assured of a significant degree of strategic surprise," according to the report.

The report states that Lt. Gen. Zheng Shenxia, chief of staff of the People's Liberation Army's Air Force and an advocate of pre-emptive action, believes the chances of victory against Taiwan would be "limited" without adopting a pre-emptive strategy.

The report says that China now believes pre-emptive strikes are its best advantage against a technologically superior force. Capt. Shen Zhongchang from the Chinese Navy Research Institute is quoted as saying that "lighting attacks and powerful first strikes will be widely used in the future."

China's new military thinking has evolved over the past decade. PLA observers have been studying U.S. military strategies since the first Gulf War, when they noticed how quickly U.S. forces using state-of-the-art weapons defeated Iraqi forces that in some ways resemble their own.

Since then, the report states the PLA has shifted its war approach from "annihilative," where an army uses "mass and attrition" to defeat an enemy, to more "coercive warfighting strategies."

The PLA now considers "shock power" as a crucial coercion element to the opening phase of its war plans and that PLA operational doctrine is now designed to actively "take the initiative" and "catch the enemy unprepared."

"With no apparent political prohibitions against pre- emption, the PLA requires shock as a force multiplier to catch Taiwan or another potential adversary, such as the United States, unprepared," the report states.

Ways the PLA would catch Taiwan and the U.S. off guard include strategic and operational deception, electronic warfare and wearing down or desensitizing the opponent's political and military leadership. Another objective would be to reduce any indication or warning of impending military action, the report states.

Preparing for a possible conflict with Taiwan and deterring the United States from intervening on Taiwan's behalf is the "primary driver" of China's military overhaul, according to this year's report. Over the course of the next decade the country will spend billions to counter U.S. advances in warfare technology, the report states. [End]

19 posted on 10/06/2003 2:01:08 PM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: armyboy
4 decades after we did it, why are they bothering?

Realizing an ancient dream, something America has forgotten.

20 posted on 10/06/2003 2:01:50 PM PDT by RightWhale (Repeal the Law of the Excluded Middle)
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