China to launch first mission with spacewalk in October

[thomasantony]

BEIJING (Reuters) - China will launch its third manned space mission in October with a crew of three, state media said on Thursday of the latest milestone in an ambitious space program.
China became only the third country to put a man into space using its own rocket in 2003 after the former Soviet Union and the United States. It sent two astronauts into space in October 2005.
"The Shenzhou VII manned space mission will be carried out at an appropriate time in October this year," Xinhua said, quoting a spokesman for the China Manned Space Engineering Office.
A three-member crew and a back-up team had been confirmed, Xinhua said.
One of the astronauts would conduct a space walk, unprecedented for Chinese, and would carry out "relative scientific experiments," the spokesman was quoted as saying.
Shenzhou means "divine vessel" in Chinese and is also a homonym of a poetic reference for China -- "divine land."
China launched its first lunar probe, the Chang'e 1, named after a mythical goddess who flew to the moon, in October 2007.
(Reporting by Guo Shipeng; Editing by Nick Macfie)



http://uk.reuters.com/article/rbssTechMediaTelecomNews/idUKPEK34666020080612

 

[teago]

They'll definitely make it to the Moon before the US. They're gonna have a strong enough economy and a strong enough drive for nationalistic glory (take a look at the Olympics ).

 

[Kyle]

They'll definitely make it to the Moon before the US. They're gonna have a strong enough economy and a strong enough drive for nationalistic glory (take a look at the Olympics ).

2 Things. One, we've been there. And, there moving so slow, that Mercury was going faster. We already did our spacewalk by this time in the 60s.

 

[Piper]

I doubt that the Chinese will beat the Americans back to the moon. For starters, the Chinese space program is as slow as molasses, with an average span of 2 and a half years between flights, even if they only had 10 flights between their first mission and their first moon landing (the Americans had 21 missions between Mercury-Redstone 3 and Apollo 11), they wouldn't make it to the moon till around 2030, and that estimate is on the optimistic side. With the length of time between flights increasing (First 2 years, now 3) it will take even longer then that. Secondly, if it looked like the Chinese were actually going to make to the moon before the Americans made it back, the Americans could easily go faster, the American government just needs to get off their butts, start giving NASA the money it requires, and stop interfering so much.

 

[Missioncmdr]

That is one thing that confuses me about the Chinese space program. They want to put a person on the Moon by 2020, yet they are only putting people in space every three years. Back in the 1960s, the United States and Soviet Union were launching missions every couple of months.

 

[gawinnard]

Is the money and resources placed into the Chinese program on the same scale as the US / USSR early programs, or are they being cautious with their attempts? I wonder when countries are closer to a moon flight would they 'ask' other countries to join them, a bit like Freedom space station turning into the international space station.

 

[henrik]

I firmly believe that they'll ramp up the pace considerably once they get the basics covered. I think I've even read that they've announced plans to do that.

They have the money and the will and once the Orion starts launching, they'll feel the pressure if they plan to make this into a mini-space race.

But I have to admit that currently it doesn't look too promising. I wouldn't mind seeing China have a permanent precense in space, though.

 

[Andy44]

Why should the US bother racing China? Apollo 11 landed 39 years ago. Nothing for the US to prove, now, unless it's a race to see who can waste the most money on propaganda missions.

The US and Russia are now partners in space, we fly on each others' vehicles and jointly run the ISS. If Orion is going to go back to the Moon, it should have a purpose wholly independent of a need to beat somebody whose people were murdering each other in the Cultural Revolution when Neil Armstrong hopped off the ladder in the Sea of Tranquility. If the US continues to act like a grown-up in space, perhaps China would like to grow up a little too and help maintain and expand the ISS, as well as team up for joint lunar exploration. It would be nice for the US and China and perhaps Russia to provide some support and rescue capability for each other during these risky lunar flights.

 

[spcefrk]

Why should the US bother racing China? Apollo 11 landed 39 years ago. Nothing for the US to prove, now, unless it's a race to see who can waste the most money on propaganda missions.

The US and Russia are now partners in space, we fly on each others' vehicles and jointly run the ISS. If Orion is going to go back to the Moon, it should have a purpose wholly independent of a need to beat somebody whose people were murdering each other in the Cultural Revolution when Neil Armstrong hopped off the ladder in the Sea of Tranquility. If the US continues to act like a grown-up in space, perhaps China would like to grow up a little too and help maintain and expand the ISS, as well as team up for joint lunar exploration. It would be nice for the US and China and perhaps Russia to provide some support and rescue capability for each other during these risky lunar flights.

Agreed. Manned spaceflight needs to remain as politically impotent as possible. There's already enough internal politics into getting people up there.

 

[razgriz31m]

the russians will shoot the moon rocket with an icbm topol LOL

 

[simonpro]

Why does China need to rush? If you rush then you make mistakes (see: Apollo 1, Soyuz 1). China can afford to take things at a steady pace, analysing the results of one missing before launching the next. This means that each of their spacecraft is a substantial evolution over the last one, and it's (IMO) the way to go.