Avi Blizovsky
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China has confirmed that it plans to launch its first manned launch vehicle into space "at the appropriate time" between October 15 and 17, i.e. this weekend.
Starting next weekend, therefore, the first manned Chinese spacecraft may take off with one or even three Taikonauts on board.
After 11 years of China's planning to join the elite of countries that launch humans into space, China is on the way to make history and present a propaganda achievement. However, as the hours tick by, the communist government keeps silent about the date and the other details, and this in order not to endanger the sympathy of the public.
"They don't want to commit," says Philip Clark, a British expert on the Chinese plan.
The success of a manned launch will give a boost to the Chinese economy and its technological progress, will increase the respect for China in the world and most importantly - will be proof at home. China's leaders advocated economic reforms in a sociological spirit and were mired in corruption scandals, and now they are waving the flag of nationalism to unite public opinion at home."
The launch takes place 42 years after Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first person to orbit the Earth. However, China as a whole will be the third country with the ability to launch a man into space, far ahead of Japan and their European countries, which only have unmanned space programs.
China can also achieve something that even the US, whose ferry fleet has been grounded since the Columbia disaster, cannot achieve now.
Still, privately, many Chinese complain that the plan is a waste of money in a company where the average salary is $700 a year.
China did not reveal the identity of the first astronaut. However, it is known that 12 military pilots who, according to the state media, were selected from 2,000 candidates trained for the trip. The Chinese newspapers said that they were all around 30 years old and 170 cm tall. In English they are called taikonauts. In Chinese - yuhangyuan which means the travelers to the universe. "At least one of them will take off before the end of October" they say in the media.
The Beijing government-backed Hong Kong newspaper Te Kung Pao says the launch will take place sometime after this Friday. This could coincide with the Chinese Communist Party's inner circle meeting on Saturday, allowing President Hu Jintao and other leaders to appear on state television and speak live with the space crew.
the spaceship Shenzhou, the celestial vehicle is based on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft and has undergone major changes. The Chinese have purchased spacesuits from Russia and life support systems to explore, although officials claim that everything that will go into orbit is made in China.
Like many other details, the cost of the launch belonging to Thirst is kept secret, but the estimate is that it will be at least one billion dollars - an amount similar to the annual government budget of a small province in China.
The Shengju, which weighs eight tons more than the Soyuz, is capable of launching three astronauts and the Chinese say that the experts have prepared a menu of 20 space meals - enough for a week. However, Clark, from the British camp, says that China will probably make sure that the first flight is as simple as possible, with one pilot and for less than one day.
"It is not even clear whether the government will warn its own public before the launch. The state television said two years ago that the identity of the astronauts would be disclosed in advance - mainly to prevent rumors that a fatal accident would be covered up and not reported.
"It wouldn't be surprising if ten minutes before the launch the state television stopped the regular broadcasts without prior notice and switched to a live broadcast of the missile on the launch pad," said Clark.
"China has had a missile program since the XNUMXs and missiles are one of our strongest military technologies. They do a good job of launching satellites for customers all over the world using the long-range rockets - a modified version will also be used to launch the Shenju chamber.
"Beijing has promoted the dream of manned flights since the early 1966s, when the first plan was canceled during the Cultural Revolution that lasted from 1976 to 1992. The new effort began in 921 and has been codenamed Project XNUMX ever since.
Four unmanned Shenju flights have been launched so far, circling the Earth for up to a week, and landing via parachutes in the grasslands of China's Inner Mongolia region.
Foreign experts said Shenju 3 suffered a hard landing and may have been damaged, but senior Chinese officials say the fourth test flight went off without a hitch. "Such success has encouraged Chinese researchers seeking to launch spacecraft to the Moon and Mars.
On Sunday, the Secretary General of the Governmental Committee for Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense said that some have confirmed that even senior officials in the administration share this ambition. "In the future", Wang Shukan says that China will start test flights and as part of them unmanned spacecraft will be landed on the moon.
Three out of one
The last 3 candidates arrived at the launch site from where the Shenzo 5 spacecraft is supposed to go this week. "The astronaut who is chosen will immediately become a national hero," they say in Beijing
Three final candidates remain in China - in preparation for choosing one of them to be the first Chinese astronaut, the government announced yesterday (Monday). From the announcement it can be understood that only one of them will go into space, this after until now there have been conflicting estimates regarding the number of astronauts who will go on the journey.
The official government news website announced that the three finalists had arrived at the launch site in northwest China. According to the site, "the number one astronaut among them will go on a journey."
China's first manned flight into space is scheduled to launch between Wednesday and Friday, while according to Chinese media, it seems that the launch will be on Wednesday.
The spacecraft "Shenzo 5" ("holy ship" in Chinese) is supposed to circle the Earth 14 times before returning. If the journey is crowned with success, China will become the third country that managed to make a journey into space after the former USSR and the USA.
Beijing began to nurture the dream of its own space program in the early 70s, but abandoned the idea during the Cultural Revolution. The current project began in 1992. Until now, China has launched unmanned spacecraft into space.
"Of course the astronaut will be a hero. He will be as famous as Li Peng," said Yong-jun, a Beijing resident, referring to a Chinese soldier who in the 60s was turned into a model of revolutionary values by the Communist Party's propaganda machine.
Astronauts, cosmonauts and now technonauts
Space / The day after tomorrow, China will be the third country to send a man into space
The "heavenly ship" goes into space
The Chinese government finally dispelled the clouds of secrecy surrounding the planned launch of a manned space shuttle, and announced on Friday that the shuttle "Shanzhou 5" (also known as the "Heavenly Ship") will be launched this weekend, and will circle the Earth 14 times. According to the Chinese News Agency, "China the new one", the shuttle will take off from a launch site in the Gobi desert at an "appropriate time", i.e. after the closing of the third plenary session of the Communist Party Council, which will end tomorrow. Yesterday, China announced that the shuttle will be launched the day after tomorrow, or on Friday at the latest. It is not yet known how many astronauts, called in China "Taikonauts", will stay in the ferry.
If the mission is successfully completed, China will become the third country in the world (after the USA and Russia) to launch a manned shuttle into space. It seems that the Chinese government seeks to derive propaganda benefits from the project, and to impress the public at home and abroad with its technological capabilities. His ends - to keep the details of the project secret, and at the same time publish it in the open air. In a flurry of conflicting reports, the newspapers in China published different launch dates: one newspaper reported that the spaceship would circle the Earth only once, not 14 as reported now; another newspaper said that the spaceship would have three astronauts, While another newspaper, published in Shanghai, claimed that the spacecraft would have only one astronaut.
Officials in the Chinese government announced that the launch would be considered another step on China's path to the status of the world's leading power. "The launch signals to the Chinese: 'Look, we are big, we can do what only a few countries have done before us,'" said Wu Guoguang, an expert on Chinese politics at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. "The main benefits of the project are psychological" and serve China's leaders, stated American space expert James Oberg. "That way they can impress the world with their abilities, and convince the public in China that the government is working well."
Economic profits are also expected for the project. A huge space industry supports the "Shanzhou 5" project - according to the government newspaper Daily People. Tens of thousands of scientists, engineers and technicians currently work in approximately 3,000 factories related to the project. China plans to take advantage of the current space industry to build a commercial network in the next 20 years to develop satellites, advanced electronics, computers, aerospace technology and even agricultural products.
According to Oberg, Beijing annually invests 2.3 billion dollars in its space program, and is already "very involved" in joint commercial projects with Brazil, Russia and the European Space Agency. If China proves to the world that it can launch a spacecraft into space, it will have an "extremely powerful bargaining tool", Oberg believes. "China is developing this project at a time when the International Space Station faces a serious threat," he said. According to him, China "could greatly help the international space program", and in return win concessions in the export of space technologies.
Huang Chunping, the commander of the launch team, said this year that he felt "tremendous pressure" to succeed in the Shenzhen 5 project. So far, China has only launched four unmanned flights of the shuttle. Russia and the US, on the other hand, both launched about a dozen unmanned flights before their astronauts went into space for the first time.
China has an ambitious plan to build by 2020 an "integrated ground-space network" for space exploration with manned and unmanned missions. Oberg and other commentators believe that China may build the first space laboratory to orbit the Earth in less than two years. In about five years, it is expected to build a medium-sized space station, and later a larger structure, on the order of the size of the Russian "Mir" station.
The leadership discusses reforms in Beijing China's leaders began a series of talks in Beijing on Tuesday, in which political and economic reforms will be discussed. This is the first gathering since President Hu Jintao took office in November last year. The conference, which will end tomorrow, is being held behind closed doors. The country's leaders are discussing how to reduce the gaps between rich and poor provinces in China, and it seems that they will focus on revitalizing an industrial area in the northeast of the country, which was once prosperous. Also on the agenda are controversial issues, including the introduction of amendments to the constitution to protect private property. In the party voices are heard for and against giving benefits to private businesses. Reports in the media also suggested that Sho would use the conference to promote democratic reforms.
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They knew about space operations outside the USA
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