TechnoChitlins

And the Beat Goes On

NASA Watch has posted a link to the following story- bq. After a decade of preparation, China will launch its first human being into space on October 15 in a 90-minute flight that will orbit the Earth once, a top government rocketry official said. bq. Xie Guangxuan, director of China Rocket Design Department, were reported by Sina.com, China's leading website. bq. The report implied that the flight, the Shenzhou V, would carry one human being in its bid to make China the world's third space-faring nation. bq. "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," Xie was quoted as saying. Xie said that he was "full of confidence" about the success of the much-expected launch. bq. The flight would take place a day after the closing of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee's 3rd plenum, a major political meeting. That schedule - coupled with the National Day holiday last week - illustrates China's long-held desire to hold up its space program as a patriotic endeavor, the Associated Press said in a reported filed from Beijing. bq. The launch of the 8-ton craft will be televised nationally on China Central Television Channel 4 and 9, the report said. If the launch is completed successfully, China would join the United States and the former Soviet Union, the only countries that have sent manned craft into space. Mankind's march to the stars continues apace. Hopefully Burt Rutan's SpaceShipOne is next. Posted by maestro at October 9, 2003 12:29 PM | TrackBack