SATIRE WARNING: The following is a test of your sense of humor (or lack thereof)!
In light of China's recent successful manned mission and spacewalk, why not enjoy a little humorous take on the Chinese Space Program from folks over at The Onion?
I'll hand it to those Chinese, they are efficient, even in their orbital space missions. Launch one day, spacewalk the next and land on the third day. That's exactly what the Chinese did by wrapping up their three day manned mission this morning by landing their Shenzhou spacecraft in a Mongolian field. Shenzhou 7 was only China's third manned mission, but it was their first to include an EVA making China the third nation to have the capability of independently launching astronauts, and now conduct spacewalks. Designed to pave the way for future missions including rendezvous and docking of spacecraft and an eventual space laboratory, Shenzhou 7 was huge step forward for the pride of the Chinese people. Some are even speculating that the Chinese are trying to get to the Moon before NASA makes their return in a new "Space Race". If that's the case, they'll have to increase the frequency of launches as their last took place nearly three years ago. While the Chinese are about 40 years behind NASA and the Russians in terms of achievements, I still applaud their determination to chart their own story in space exploration history, even if they make it up before it happens.
[Space.com]
AP Photos
Home to PointNiner
Today's launch of the Shenzhou 7 mission was undoubtedly of major importance to the national pride of China. So much so that now it appears that a full article and narrative of the launch was posted on the web site of the country's official news agency, Xinhua...before the launch ever took place! The article, dated two days in the future, was eventually discovered and taken down. Fortunately the launch lived up to the article and was a success sending a three man crew into orbit on China's third manned mission and its first since 2005. The crew is expected to make an EVA from their Soyuz clone Shenzhou spacecraft sometime tomorrow, which would be another first for the Chinese space program. The mission is intended to help China develop technologies and procedures for an eventual orbital docking and space station. But it makes me wonder if the mission had been a failure (i.e. kaboom), would the government still have ran the propaganda piece to cover it up?
