Posted on 10/08/2003 2:11:08 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
BEIJING - The shape of China's first manned space mission came into sharper focus Wednesday with reports that a human crew will orbit the Earth briefly next week after a live-television launch trumpets the government's accomplishment to its citizens and the world.
The finalists to be the first Chinese astronauts converged upon a hotel in a northwestern town as the mission neared, another news report said. And in Indonesia, Premier Wen Jiabao said the craft, the Shenzhou 5, would take off with a human crew "soon, very soon."
If the launch is completed successfully, China would join the United States and the former Soviet Union - now Russia - as the only countries that have sent manned craft into space.
The Oct. 15 date of the inaugural launch - a 90-minute flight that will orbit the planet once - was reported Wednesday by Sina.com, a major mainland Web site. It quoted Phoenix TV, a Hong Kong broadcaster with close ties to the Beijing leadership - and with a former Chinese military officer at its helm.
The flight, after a decade of preparations, would come a day after the end of the Chinese Communist Party's plenum, a major political meeting. That schedule - coupled with the National Day holiday last week - allows China's leaders to link the party to the patriotic fervor the space program has long encouraged.
"China's space technology has been created by China itself. We may have started later than Russia and the United States, but it's amazing how fast we've been able to do this," Sina.com quoted Xie Guangxuan, director of the government's China Rocket Design Department, as saying.
The Shenzhou capsule is based on Russia's Soyuz vessel, with extensive modifications. China bought Russian space suits and a life support system to study, though officials stress that everything sent up will be made in China.
Sina.com said Xie was "full of confidence" about the launch and said the beginning of the mission would be carried live by China Central Television, the government broadcaster that reaches nearly a billion Chinese.
The bursts of information, after days of silence, suggest the government is brimming with confidence about its secretive space program. Reports about the Shenzhou 5 launch were all over the state-controlled newspapers Wednesday.
Xie was quoted as saying that Shenzhou 5 - the name means "sacred vessel" in Chinese - would orbit the Earth just once before returning. It would carry 2.2 pounds of plant seeds for research - but no scientific equipment "to ensure the astronaut has space," Sina.com said.
Xie didn't say how many "taikonauts" - their English nickname, after the Chinese word for space - would be participating in the mission. Sina.com's language suggested that it would be only one.
The state-controlled newspaper Beijing Star Daily said 14 taikonaut finalists were staying at a hotel in the northwestern province of Gansu, the expected launch site, and that three would become finalists to soar into orbit. It quoted anonymous space-program officials.
All 14 have qualified for space travel and passed psychological tests "with honors," the newspaper said.
"I can guarantee you that most of the astronauts can fulfill their assignment successfully," one official was quoted as saying in the report by another state-controlled newspaper, the Guangzhou-based Express News.
Another official was quoted as saying project leaders want "a middle-sized figure, nimble movement, the ability to withstand hardships and a teamwork mindset."
The mission will also herald the debut of authentic Chinese food in space, another Web site reported.
"They'll be able to eat shredded pork with garlic sauce and kungpao chicken," China.com said. "It will be more tasty than Western food. After the meal, green tea will be available to increase the astronaut's spirits."
Chinese astronauts have been training for years, though the military-linked program has never identified the trainees.
Beijing has nurtured the dream of manned space flight since at least the early 1970s, when its first program was scrapped during the upheaval of the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution. The current effort began in 1992 under the code name Project 921.
Four unmanned Shenzhou capsules have been launched, orbiting the Earth for up to a week and landing by parachute in the northern grasslands of China's Inner Mongolia region.
Wen, asked about the launch at a regional meeting in Bali, Indonesia, said it was around the corner.
"This will be very soon, very soon," Wen said. Asked about a specific date, he demurred: "We haven't decided."
The Moon Race was compelling because it had a well defined goal and endpoint in time. Those responsible for approving the funding thought in the short term.
The long term space enthusiasts then had to arm themselves with "space resource" arguments because manned space exploration in and of itself was a no-sell in Congress. The ideas of Gerard K. O'Neill is an example of an attempt to develop an economic component to manned deep space activity.
If the space resource arguments fail from flawed economic calculations or rely on undeveloped technology, manned space exploration schemes falter.
Since unmanned space exploration benefits from advances in electronics and communications, it remains the only practical means of science exploration beyond low Earth orbit.
What the Chinese are doing here is notable only in that they need to recapitulate history: put on a demonstration of their technical capabililites to show off their industrial prowess to the world. The spokesman of the Chinese effort may spin tales of space conquest, but rest assured the chinese leadership who controls the purse strings are concerned only for the propaganda value at the current moment.
Add to that, man's instincts, intuition and ability to sieze on the inconspicuous occurrence that will make them the ones to conquer the moon and move out into space. They will use robots and technology but they will never be replaced by machines.
Just as America in the 1960s was spurred to graduate more engineers and scientists to meet the challenges of the space race and cold war, China creates this shining example of their progress to encourage their people and international investors, as well as poke the eye of their competitors.
The motivation for this quest of the Chinese may be nothing more than a higher up criticizing a lower level official for lack of technical parity with the West.
Yeah, tell me how you haven't read any of the books on space travel, information stolen by your spies or sold to you by the Clintons.
As opposed to the
poor schmucks who ride our shuttles
that get holes from foam,
and are managed by
genuises that declined spy
photos of damage?
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