Chinese Manned Lunar Landing Plans Fizzle
Aerospace Tuesday, May 18, 2004 . This is a SciScoop post by Ricky James
China rocketed ex-fighter pilot Yang Liwei into orbit around Earth in October, becoming only the third nation in space after the former Soviet Union and the United States and fueling bigger dreams of galactic exploration.
Officials of the highly secretive program have made vague reference to a future space station but the timeline projected by Wang was believed to be the most specific to date.
China has welcomed international cooperation in its space station.
It was unclear if plans to forge ahead on its own were influenced by recent signs the United States might not want China to join the 16-nation, $95 billion International Space Station.
Chinese space officials were “shocked” the United States had not done more to welcome them into the small community of space-faring nations, a leading U.S. expert said last month after a trip to China.
The United States harbors concerns that the army-run Chinese program could some day pose a threat to U.S. dominance in military satellite communications.
Previously: « GoFast Amateur Rocket Reaches Space
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2 Responses to Chinese Manned Lunar Landing Plans Fizzle
apsmith
May 18th, 2004 at 11:04 am
Actually, from all I read of what the Chinese actually said, they had not mentioned landing people on the Moon, except possibly in the distant future; the moon missions they’ve been talking about for the last few years have always been robotic. Of course, they’ve generally been very secretive about it all.
US attitudes haven’t helped of course. Doesn’t anybody in this country realize the extent to which we depend on China for just about every manufactured good these days? It’s ridiculous to think we can somehow wall of aerospace manufacture from all the rest, and think we “don’t have to share” any of that and try to keep them in the dark. They’ll get there without our help, but it sure would be a more positive thing for the world if we were a little more welcoming about it all…
jxliv7
May 18th, 2004 at 5:03 pm
.
…might be Asian if the current NASA and European space manned expeditions continue to fade to a starry black; but I doubt it, at least in the long run. At some point humanity has to come together and realize that heading into space is a joint venture. It is sad that congratulations for scientific accomplishments are withheld for political purposes.
The only exception I can see to this technological blending is if a significant and exceptionally advance form of propulsion is developed — like nuclear gravitometric thrust (yeah, I made that up).
The REAL solutions to men in space are going to be led by projects like Burt Rutan’s SpaceShipOne, the CXST GoFast rocket, or other business groups like SeaLaunch. They’re the Conestoga wagons of the 21st century.
jon