China’s astronauts return to Earth

Reuters
Sunday, 28 September 2008

China’s three astronauts landed safely back on Earth on Sunday after a challenging voyage, including a space walk, that showcased the country’s technological mastery and put it one step closer to the Moon.

Spacewalker Zhai Zhigang and two other astronauts on board the Shenzhou VII landed around 5:40 p.m (0940 GMT) on the steppes of northern Inner Mongolia region, where helicopters with crews trained in search and rescue were on stand-by.

The men, who told mission ocntrol that they were safe and well, can expect a heroes’ welcome from the whole country when they have recovered from the journey and are allowed out of quarantine, which the official Xinhua agency said will last around half a month.

Previous space pioneers, now national icons, have been showered with tributes and gifts ranging from luxury housing for their families to traditional operas performed in their honour.

Zhai’s successful space walk in a $4.4 million, domestically designed, suit caps an eventful year for China in which it has both coped with the tragedy of the devastating Sichuan earthquake and revelled in the Beijing Olympics.

It was China’s third manned space mission. The ability to space walk is key to a longer-term goal of assembling a space lab and then a larger space station, and maybe one day making a landing on the moon.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080927/ap_on_re_as/as_china_space

Chinese astronaut makes nation’s first spacewalk
Sat Sep 27, 5:44 AM ET

BEIJING – A Chinese astronaut on Saturday performed the nation’s first-ever spacewalk, the latest milestone in an ambitious program that is increasingly rivaling the United States and Russia in its rapid expansion.

Mission commander Zhai Zhigang floated out of the orbiter module’s hatch in the spacewalk, shown live on state broadcaster CCTV. Tethered to handles attached to the Shenzhou 7 ship’s orbital module’s exterior, Zhai remained outside for about 13 minutes before climbing back inside and closing the hatch behind him.

“Shenzhou 7 has left the module, physically feel very good. Greetings to all the people of the nation and all the people of the world,” Zhai said.

Fellow astronaut Liu Boming also emerged briefly from the capsule to hand Zhai a Chinese flag that he waved for an exterior camera filming the event. The third crew member, Jing Haipeng, monitored the ship from inside the re-entry module.

The successful spacewalk paves the way for assembling a space station from two Shenzhou orbital modules, the next major goal of China’s manned spaceflight program. China is also pursuing lunar exploration and may attempt to land a man on the moon in the next decade.

China launched its first manned mission, Shenzhou 5, in 2003, followed by a two-man mission in 2005.

Since blasting off from their northwestern China launch base on Friday, the astronauts had been largely occupied with preparing the suits and adapting to zero gravity. Meals aboard the craft have followed a typical Chinese menu, featuring versions of kung pao chicken, shrimp and dried fruit, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

On Friday, the three-module capsule shifted from an oval orbit to a more stable circular orbit 213 miles (343 kilometers) above Earth, meaning it is circling at a constant distance.

The change ensured that Earth’s gravitational pull would not vary during the spacewalk attempt and will help Shenzhou make a precise landing on the Inner Mongolian Steppe on Sunday after its re-entry vehicle bursts through Earth’s atmosphere, Xinhua said.

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iCePX0-wyBJ50i6n_sZjFj08V7SA

After Olympics, China eyes space conquest
2 days ago

BEIJING (AFP) — Flushed with success after a widely applauded Beijing Olympics, China will seek this week to further burnish its image with a new chapter in its quest to conquer space.

Long-time Communist Party member Zhai Zhigang is slated to become the nation’s first “taikonaut” to walk in space during the Shenzhou VII mission, China’s third manned space flight, which is slated to blast off Thursday night.

“When you can undertake manned space flight, you get prestige,” Philippe Coue, author of several works on China’s space programme, told AFP.

“If all goes well, especially after the Olympic Games, the nation’s image will be even further embellished.”

In a matter of years, China’s military-run space programme has made strides which the United States and Russia took decades to accomplish, and even though the budget is a secret, it is clear it has done so at much smaller cost.

“They have gone very fast, they had the will to undertake manned space flight and they went directly to a sophisticated design capable of carrying three astronauts,” Coue said of the three-man Shenzhou mission.

The nation’s first space walk is part of a series of step-by-step flights which aim to culminate in an orbiting space laboratory over the next several years and then a permanent space station.

China became the third nation after the former Soviet Union and the United States to independently send a man into orbit after Yang Liwei was blasted into space on Shenzhou V in 2003.

Following Yang’s solo flight, two astronauts manned the Shenzhou VI for a five-day flight in 2005.

By 2017, China could be circling the moon in a manned mission and land on the lunar surface by 2025. Beginning in 2015, China hopes to begin the exploration of Mars.

Forty-two years after Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space, Yang was welcomed home as a hero by the nation of 1.3 billion, where the dream of space flight is as old as the Ming Dynasty (1368 to 1644 AD).

According to one legend, the Ming official and amateur astronomer Wan Hu tried to construct a crude spaceship — basically a chair with dozens of rockets attached to it — and may not have survived his attempt to enter orbit.

While playing a bigger and bigger role on the world’s economic, financial and political stage, China also showed its sporting prowess by dominating the Beijing Olympics. Now it hopes to further its grand vision for outer space.

“The Chinese say: ‘We want to be seen as a leading technological power and the way to do that is through space,'” Isabelle Sourbes-Verger, a researcher and expert on China’s space programme, told AFP.

Some experts believe that outer space will become the new battleground in an emerging rivalry between an increasingly confident China and the United States.

“The Chinese space programme is more a question of affirming its own capabilities than a rivalry. It’s the United States that is posing the question of a rivalry,” Sourbes-Verger said.

Although some members of the US Congress have expressed concern about China’s growing ambitions in space, NASA’s huge budget — 17.3 billion dollar this year alone — will ensure American domination for a long time to come.

Even so, China has already surpassed Japan as the most powerful space nation in Asia, and is far ahead of fledgling space power India too.

“China has sent a man into space largely by itself, while Japan depends on the United States,” said Sourbes-Verger.

But for China, it is the prestige that remains a driving force in its programme, experts say.

“Certainly, a space programme shows the economic and scientific power of a nation,” said Hu Xingdou, professor at the Beijing Institute of Technology.

“Currently more and more nations are capable of launching satellites, but very few have succeeded in going to outer space.”

So far, China’s space authorities have shown nothing but confidence in the success of the flight of the Shenzhou, or “divine vessel,” and are already beginning preparations to recruit a second generation of taikonauts.

China confirms ASAT intercept.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/01/23/wchina123.xml

China denies starting a space arms race
By Martin Beckford, and Richard Spencer in Beijing
Last Updated: 11:10am GMT 23/01/2007

Russia sees US missile shield in Europe as ‘obvious threat’

China has insisted it does not want an arms race in space despite admitting for the first time that it blew up a satellite with a ground-launched missile.

A medium-range ballistic missile was fired at one of the country’s own weather satellites on Jan 11, in the first such test for more than 20 years.

China had repeatedly refused to say publicly whether it had destroyed one of its ageing satellites, in a move which caused international alarm and sparked criticism from the US last week.

But today Beijing confirmed it had launched the missile at its satellite, orbiting more than 500 miles above Earth, while insisting that the move should not be seen as a threat.

The admission came as Taiwan accused China of behaving like a “military superpower”, claiming it had increased the number of missiles pointed at the island to 900.

Taiwanese defence sources are reported to have said that the intensity of its neighbour’s military preparations was such that it could destroy the Taiwanese air force and cripple the country’s command and control and transport system within ten hours of conflict breaking out.

……