Posted on 10/15/2003 12:29:03 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
BEIJING, Wednesday, Oct. 15 - The Chinese spacecraft Shenzhou 5 blasted off from the Gobi Desert on Wednesday carrying a single astronaut. The launching left government leaders jubilant yet also anxiously awaiting his safe return so China can stake its claim as one of the world's elite space-faring nations.
The launching took place about 9 a.m., according to the state-run television network, CCTV. At about 9:30, the network showed a videotape of the rocket soaring to the heavens.
The Shenzhou 5, or Divine Vessel, is expected to orbit Earth 14 times before returning after a voyage of roughly 21 hours.
If successful, the mission would make China the third nation to send a man into space, coming more than four decades after the Soviet Union and the United States accomplished the feat at the height of the cold war.
The mission also carries broad political significance for the Chinese government, which hopes to win good will and inspire nationalism in its citizens, many of whom regard the Communist Party as an increasingly irrelevant political dinosaur.
Top officials also want to display China's growing technological savvy and stake a claim to being a world power considered equal to the United States.
Until recent days, the mission has been cloaked in secrecy, down to the most basic information, including how many astronauts would be on board. But on Wednesday morning the lone astronaut proved to be Lt. Col. Yang Liwei, 38, who was chosen from a pool of 14.
"I will not disappoint the motherland," Sina.com, the country's leading Web site, quoted him as saying. "I will complete each movement with total concentration. And I will gain honor for the People's Liberation Army and for the Chinese nation."
A former pilot, Colonel Yang became an astronaut after passing an aptitude test in 1993.
Soon after he rose aloft this morning, Colonel Yang was asked by a doctor at the control center about his condition, the New China News Agency reported, and replied, "I feel good and my conditions are normal."
Assuming he can safely return the spacecraft to its landing spot in Inner Mongolia, Mr. Yang would become an instant national hero, putting a human face on a mission that has emphasized the collective technical prowess of the space program, rather than individuals.
"The successful launching of the Shenzhou 5 manned spacecraft is a glory for our great motherland," President Hu Jintao said in comments issued by the New China News Agency, "and it signifies that our country has scored an initial victory in this first effort at manned space flight. It also signifies the Chinese people have made another historically significant step forward in their progress toward conquering the summit of world science and technology."
Such promises do not deter skeptics, who note that the Chinese military is responsible for the space program and worry that the Shenzhou 5 is a part of a program to develop military applications in space.
Other analysts say China is developing military-oriented space technology but say the Shenzhou 5 has little, if any, military application. The mission is expected to conduct some scientific experiments and is carrying seeds for agricultural tests.
The mission would mark the greatest achievement of a space program whose development has been interrupted by the convulsions of contemporary Chinese history. First with the Great Leap Forward of the late 1950's, then later with the Cultural Revolution in the 1970's, China's domestic turmoil slowed, and at some points stopped, the space program.
In the early 1970's, China had started a secret program to send a man into space, even selecting a training group of astronauts before the project was canceled. But in 1992, Jiang Zemin, then the president, who remains the leader of the Chinese military, which oversees the space program, signaled China's renewed ambitions in space with a new program to send a man into orbit.
Since then, China has launched four unmanned spacecraft, beginning with the Shenzhou 1 in November 1999. The final test run for this week's launching was the Shenzhou 4 last December, which Chinese officials say spent seven days in space before returning. In all, putting a man into space took more than a decade.
"China has had a very careful, slow-paced buildup to this launch," said John M. Logsdon, director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University. "This is the result of a deliberate decision made a decade ago. It's a very comprehensive program."
It also has big ambitions. Compared with the United States, where NASA has an annual budget of roughly $15 billion, the Chinese space budget of $2 billion is small, though it compares favorably with countries like India and Russia. Still, the Chinese plan to begin exploring the moon, to launch a Hubble-like space telescope and, possibly, to construct a rival space station to the existing International Space Station.
"The second phase of our program involves more advanced technologies such as space rendezvous and docking, and will also include the establishment of an outer space laboratory system," said Gu Yidong, a high-ranking space official, in an interview this week with the New China News Agency.
Mr. Gu said China ultimately intended to explore and exploit space, particularly for energy resources, suggesting futuristic possibilities like using space as "an ideal industrial base."
The Chinese assert that they were actually first to try to send a man into space. A 16th-century Ming Dynasty artisan, Wan Hu, held kites in each hand and strapped himself to a chair equipped with rockets, according to some historical accounts carried in the state news media.
His servants reportedly lit the gunpowder-fueled rocket as Mr. Wan tried to launch himself into the sky. He failed, dying in the explosion.
"I, for one, do not intend to go to sleep at night, by light of a Communist moon!"
Boston Globe: China puts its first man in space***If successful, the journey of the Long March 2F would mark a great step for China in its goal to become a major space explorer for both military and civilian purposes. The space program also underscores China's desire to become recognized as an emerging great power. Chinese scientists have pledged recently that the country would send a rocket to the moon, establish a space station, ring the globe with high-precision satellites, and explore the possibility of extracting the moon's mineral wealth, particularly helium-3, a potential energy source.
But in a sign of China's still fragile self-confidence, plans to broadcast the 9 a.m. liftoff live were canceled at the last minute, state-run media said. The launch was shown on China Central Television 40 minutes after it occurred. In 1995, six people died during the explosion of a Long March rocket, carrying an Apstar-2 satellite, in a failed liftoff shown live on Chinese television.
A smoky trail was visible against a bright, azure sky in northwest China, witnesses near the launch site reported. Weather in the region was clear, with slight winds and a high temperature of 48 degrees Fahrenheit.
President Hu Jintao was at the launch center to watch China's bid to realize a dream that has a long history. A crater on the moon is named after a mythical Chinese explorer, Wan Hu, who, according to legend, died after strapping 47 rockets to a chair in an ill-fated attempt to reach the heavens. China's program to reach the moon is code-named Chang'e, after a mythical fairy who traveled to the moon after mistakenly eating medicine that made her fly.
China began a manned space program in 1970 with the launch of a satellite that continues to broadcast a Maoist anthem, "The East is Red," to the heavens. That program was scratched because of lack of cash. Hu's predecessor, Jiang Zemin, resumed the program in 1992.
Jiang resumed China's program in the early 1990s, partly as a way to promote nationalism in a country that was still reeling from aftershocks of the Tiananmen Square crackdown. Jiang is believed to have given the rockets their name, Shenzhou, which means "divine vessel." Today's launch was Shenzhou 5; there have been four previous launches of unmanned capsules.
The Shenzhou capsule is generally modeled after the Russian Soyuz program. But it is 30 percent bigger and China uses the orbit capsule for continued scientific experiments after the recovery vehicle detaches and returns to Earth, according to Qi Faren, the general designer of the Shenzhou spaceship.
The space program, which is believed to have a budget of $2 billion a year, is run by the People's Liberation Army.***
Have you never eaten Szechuan-style ginger beef???
Or clams in black bean sauce???
If I was on a multi-year space voyage, I want a Chinese cook!!!
Seriously, this can only be a positive development for the U.S. space program.
A kick in the *ss, if you will.
(egg, that is)
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