Posted on 02/03/2003 11:47:10 AM PST by Arthalion
China vows to push ahead with its first manned space flight
BEIJING (AFP) Feb 03, 2003 China has vowed to push ahead with plans to launch its own first manned space mission this year despite the Columbia tragedy, state press reported Monday. "China will launch its first manned space shuttle this year," said Tu Shou'e, an astronautics academic at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, according to the People's Daily
"The key work now is to learn lessons from the accident to make our program better and to make the dream of the Chinese people of reaching into space come true."
The Columbia Space Shuttle broke up Saturday over central Texas as it re-entered the Earth's atmosphere, killing all seven astronauts on board.
While expressing regret at the incident, Tu said accidents were bound to happen as humanity pushed back the boundaries of space exploration.
"Human exploration into space is very dangerous and very hard and accidents are inevitable, but the accident won't stop the human step into space," he said.
Chinese President Jiang Zemin on Sunday expressed condolences to US President George W. Bush over the Columbia tragedy, but he too insisted space exploration must continue.
In a message to Bush, Jiang said China "deeply regrets" the disaster and the death of Columbia's seven-member crew, the Xinhua news agency reported.
However, Jiang said he believed humanity "should continue and make further progress in space exploration despite the setback."
Officials at China's space program have told AFP their first manned mission will be launched around October.
If it succeeds, China will become only the third country to send a human into orbit, after the United States and the former Soviet Union.
No, this is why we should stop shopping at WalMart.
I wouldn't be surprised if the ChiComs had something to do with the Columbia "accident", considering the fact that they have much to gain with the US space program being temporarily (hopefully) derailed. After all, since they were (with the help of Klintoon and his acolytes) able to penetrate and steal secrets from our nuclear weapons programs, why wouldn't they be able to penetrate NASA, and sabotage a shuttle mission?
Just a thought. /removing tinfoil hat
In the old Soviet days there was a secret military SpaceShuttle mission (Atlantis, I think) for which the launch time was only released about an hour before. When the launch did occur, the roll manuever was nearly 180 degrees, which put the vehicle on a decidedly northern (polar?) trajectory.
Around the same time I recall reading of a military satellite which the (then) Soviets had apparently lost all communication and even track of.
When that Shuttle mission returned, I think about 5 days later, I noticed on landing that the nosegear seemed to have hit the runway pretty hard after a long maingear roll, indicating something fairly heavy may have been in the cargo bay.
I wouldn't be a bit surprised if it was that missing Soviet satellite.
I think we'd better keep, and even quickly enhance this capability of getting personnel rapidly into orbit.
space shuttle??
I would. It's starting to look as if the heads at NASA don't need any help in that department.
I wonder how many contract engineers at NASA are Chinese Nationals here on H 1 visas?
'Some indication of what they...and we are thinking.
Do you have any documented evidence to support your claim or is this just more tin-foil hat garbage?
A secret known only to you? You must have some information or do just enjoy making wild claims?
The Shuttle's next military mission was put on hold after the Challenger disaster, but it was carried out by Atlantis between 2 and 7 December 1988. The mission was highly classified, so most details are not releasable. The mission was commanded by Navy Commander Robert L. Gibson, and the orbiter was piloted by Air Force Colonel Guy S. Gardner. The mission specialists were Air Force Colonel Richard M. Mullane, Air Force Lt. Colonel Jerry L. Ross and Navy Commander William M. Shepherd. Though the countdown was picked up at 0230Z on December 1st, upper level wind shear effects delayed the launch until December 2nd. The countdown was picked up again on December 2nd, but a problem with a ground feed liquid oxygen valve required a 50-minute unscheduled hold at T minus 180 minutes. Wind shear problems forced another delay at T minus nine minutes for an additional 99 minutes, but the final unscheduled hold (at T minus 31 seconds) only lasted 71 seconds. Atlantis lifted off Pad 39B at 1430:34Z on December 2nd. The Shuttle landed at Edwards Air Force Base at 2336:11Z on 6 December 1988
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