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RA writes "China is one step closer to enter a elite club. It could be the third nation after Russia and the US to place a person into Earth orbit.
Space.com is carrying a story with more detail."
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hmm..the post above mine is the frist[sic] one a weird feeling.
Anyway go china I say, it gives NASA some healthy competition, might just buck the EU into getting its act together, and well, we all love space flight
It can carry two to three, perhaps four people, Clark said. "The Chinese are starting with what are 'second generation spacecraft' compared with the Soviets and the United States," he said. You gotta give them credit. Whether or not they benefited from existing technology (the US and Russian Space agencies) or developed this *cough* all on thier own this is a great acheivement for China. China is certainly not aiming low by building a craft for 3-4 people. This design is very workable and will save them the steps of building up to a craft this size vs. the way the us did Mercury and Gemini to build upto Apollo. The article was sparce on details so here are a few links for those interested:
Shenzhou [friends-partners.org] Shenzhou Gallery [geocities.com] An older article on SpaceDaily.com [spacedaily.com] Shenzhou: A Model Program [spacer.com] China launches second unmanned space test flight
[spacedaily.com] Lucky for them the Russian Space program is not as picky about design 'borrowing' as say Apple is because the design is strikingly similar to Soyuz in many ways. It wouldn't surprise me if China becomes a major player in the space game. China has the money and infrastructure to make things happen and is not dependent on the rest of the world. (Personally, I think that is the real message they are sending by building this program.) They are geared towards building thier own space station which indicates some real sense of vision and they have a very cheap labor force (err forced labor?). If they get the program fully up and running it wouldn't be inconceiveable for them to build mass produced versions of thier craft. This design and the launch technology they are using may give them an edge similar to the Russian program: launching at a much lower average cost per kilo of payload than the US.
I appreciate the extra information you have posted here about the Shenzhou.
But I would be reluctant to call the low cost of the Russian space program an "edge". A lot of what the Soviet (now Russian) space program achieved came at the cost of many cosmonauts' lives. Granted, the American program is extremely bloated and has had its own losses, but the safety of the astronauts has always been considered paramount.
np. Sad to see this story did not make the front page as Shenzhou is really an interesting conversation bit.I don't want to come off as sounding callous about the loss of life in the Russian program or ours for that matter. The men and women involved (the astronauts and cosmonauts) were all willing to take the risk for the honor and privelege of advancing mankind. The cause imho is much more important than the few heroic lives sacraficed to make it happen. They all know the risks well before being strapped to a huge chemical firecracker and have plenty of opportunities to flunk out if they don't want to take the risk.To the best of my knowledge the Russian program and the US program have both lost almost the same number of lives to reach the point where we are at today. What makes the Russian program 'look' worse for the numbers is the fact that they usually lose cosmonauts one, two or three per incident vs the US program losing a minimum of three per incident. Of course the Challenger incident throws a nice high number into the figures bringing our average loss per incident much higher than the comprable Russian average(even though they have had a much higher incident count). Considering how many more manned flights the Russians have had than the US I don't think they are doing so bad.The Russians do indeed have an edge over us as far as cost per kilo of payload. The US program runs about $22,000 per kilo for launch vs the Russian $1000 per kilo.
third (Score:1)
Anyway go china I say, it gives NASA some healthy competition, might just buck the EU into getting its act together, and well, we all love space flight
Have they choosen the lucky astronaut yet?
Some additional info about Shenzhou (Score:4)
Shenzhou Gallery [geocities.com]
An older article on SpaceDaily.com [spacedaily.com]
Shenzhou: A Model Program [spacer.com]
China launches second unmanned space test flight [spacedaily.com] Lucky for them the Russian Space program is not as picky about design 'borrowing' as say Apple is because the design is strikingly similar to Soyuz in many ways. It wouldn't surprise me if China becomes a major player in the space game. China has the money and infrastructure to make things happen and is not dependent on the rest of the world. (Personally, I think that is the real message they are sending by building this program.) They are geared towards building thier own space station which indicates some real sense of vision and they have a very cheap labor force (err forced labor?). If they get the program fully up and running it wouldn't be inconceiveable for them to build mass produced versions of thier craft. This design and the launch technology they are using may give them an edge similar to the Russian program: launching at a much lower average cost per kilo of payload than the US.
Re:Some additional info about Shenzhou (Score:1)
But I would be reluctant to call the low cost of the Russian space program an "edge". A lot of what the Soviet (now Russian) space program achieved came at the cost of many cosmonauts' lives. Granted, the American program is extremely bloated and has had its own losses, but the safety of the astronauts has always been considered paramount.
Re:Some additional info about Shenzhou (Score:2)