Shenzhou 7 (artist’s conception)
Three astronauts are now circling the Earth at a constant altitude of 213 miles (343 kilometers) in China’s Shenzhou 7 spacecraft after a perfect take-off on a Long March II-F rocket on Thursday. A crew member, probably mission commander Zhai Zhigang, is preparing for China’s first spacewalk.
This is the third manned mission of the 16-year-old Chinese space effort. The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) claims the country’s space effort has generated 800 types of new materials, 80 percent of the new materials developed in China. Most of China’s space effort has been devoted to unmanned, low-orbit geosynchronous satellites used for communications.
NotionsCapital is jealous of any national economy that can afford to waste enormous amounts of money and human life on man-in-space stunts that produce little more than prestige. We salute astronauts Liu Boming, Zhai Zhigang and Jing Haipeng and wish them happy landings in Inner Mongolia on Sunday.
Image by Mike Licht. download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com
September 26, 2008 at 4:57 pm
Congrats to the Chinese. They’ve just entered the 20th Century.
I heard some tribesman from the Amazon Rain forest just used a flush toilet for the first time yesterday!
September 26, 2008 at 5:00 pm
WB: Let me remind you that the USA and Russia flew a rescue mission to the International Space Station to fix a flush toilet.