China's rising status in space exploration

This is the second mission of Chinese going into space, two astronauts this time. Not much about it in the video news here in the U.S. It was shortly after their first mission that Bush suddenly got an urge to send people to the Moon again.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/space/1....ap/index.html

China's first mission was hardly covered on the U.S. news networks. The coverage was so sparse that some of my friends claimed that the communist government blacked out the whole mission, which wasn't true. The Chinese government had journalists from all over the world in China to cover the first mission and full video coverage.

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Yeah, but it's easier for them. All they gotta do is just stand on each others' shoulders.

We gotta build rockets.

Good one.

We can stand on our mountain of debt, I guess. That will probably reach to the Moon.

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The coverage was so sparse that some of my friends claimed that the communist government blacked out the whole mission, which wasn't true.

It's funny. I read the title of the topic, and I said to myself: "I bet there is at least going to be one mention of something related to marxism/communism in this thread, since it will threaten US dominance". And what is the first word I see? communist. Yes, it was the first word. I just had to laugh. It's a rule of thumb. If you read about the glorious and impressive growth of China, you will hear about how capitalism, or the market is so effective. If you hear about China is going to surpass the Western world (and in particular the US) or about human rights in China, expect to hear about "the communists"!

Truth is, after the coup in 1976, there hasn't been a Chinese government led by communists. China is as capitalist as the rest of the world.

China is only the third country to send people into space on its own. No matter what one thinks of the Chinese government, that was an historic event a couple years ago when they did their first mission. I thought it would have gotten more coverage in the U.S.

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The third?

The Soviet Union. It was backwards in some areas, although it surpassed the United States in many fields, especially technology. And the CCCP was the first nation to send man into space. Did it by itself.

Cuba sent it's first man in 1980. Arnaldo Tamayo-Mendez became an astronaut in 1978 and traveled in space in 1980. He was the first black, first hispanic, the first Cuban and the first person of african-descent to fly in space. I do not know about extent of Soviet support for Cuba's space program.

And India, when did India send up their astronauts? Do you know anything about the extent of foreign support?

But I said on its own. It's own program and spacecraft. China is only the third to do so, after the USSR and US.

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The first woman in space was back around 1964. The U.S. sent up its first woman around 1984.

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Right at this point, thanks to government fuck ups. The US does not have a manned space program.

From what I've read, the U.S. is going to try to use the shuttle technology to go back to the moon. Basically, taking a bunch of shuttle solid rocket boosters and strapping them to a small vehicle. Doesn't sound to innovative to me.

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