A look at the Chinese space program
A look at the Chinese space program.
A look at the Chinese space program.
A look at the Chinese space program.
China’s first space station module, Tiangong-1, has been shipped to the launchpad for final checkout, in preparation for its launch later this year.
On Monday China successfully launched its second data relay satellite, expanding its space communications network in preparation for before its first unmanned rendezvous and docking attempt later this year.
The launch of China’s first space station module is now set for September.
Questions have been raised about the safety of China’s new bridge.
[China Central Television] said that workers were tightening bolts that could easily have been loosened by hand on the bridge, which has seen nearly 18,000 cars cross it every day since it was officially opened on June 30, on the eve of the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China.
Why does this remind me of the two shuttle accidents, where managers ignored engineering issues in order to satisfy political concerns?
Global warming scientists have come up with an explanation for the cooling seen in the past decade: The increase of coal burning in China.
In other words, fossil fuels can cause global warming and global cooling!
Or to put it another way, climate scientists really have no clear understanding yet of the climate, and are merely guessing when they try to predict what’s happening.
Getting rare-earth elements, needed for electronics, from ocean floor mud?
The world’s longest sea bridge opened in China yesterday. With some cool images.
Capitalism in space: China has purchased a three Earth observation satellite constellation from a United Kingdom firm.
The cost of rare earth metals used in electronics has soared to record levels in the past two weeks as China clamps down on illegal mining and limits supplies.
China’s second lunar probe, Chang’e 2, has been boosted out of lunar orbit and beyond.
Oil money in Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Venezuela is fueling their modest space efforts.
Our tax dollars at work: Under both the Bush and Obama administrations, the EPA has given $1.29 million in grants to various Chinese government agencies.
China’s largest inland lake has disappeared in the worst drought in more than half a century.
Chinese journalists were barred from all official press areas during the Endeavour launch.
A NASA spokesperson says the agency was simply following instructions in last month’s 2011 spending bill that averted a government-wide shutdown. The legislation prohibits NASA from using any resources to host visits by a Chinese official to any NASA facility as well as for collaborations with any Chinese government entity. The Chinese journalists work for Xinhua, the official Chinese news agency, and thus are considered government employees.
The story behind China’s planned space station begins to emerge.
China first said it would build a space station in 1992. But the need for a manned outpost “has been continually contested by Chinese space professionals who, like their counterparts in the United States, question the scientific utility and expense of human space flight”, says Gregory Kulacki, China project manager at the Union of Concerned Scientists, headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts. “That battle is effectively over now, however, and the funds for the space station seem to have been allocated, which is why more concrete details are finally beginning to emerge.”
Though I am always skeptical of comments from the Union of Concerned Scientists, in this case Kulacki makes sense. He also illustrates a further example of what I wrote in 2005, “After more than 40 years of debate, the argument is over and the supporters of manned spaceflight have won.”
More details, including images, of China’s proposed space station.
China is asking the public to name its space station.
Competition! China finds SpaceX’s launch prices low — and a challenge to meet.
Declining to speak for attribution, the Chinese officials say they find the published prices on the SpaceX website very low for the services offered, and concede they could not match them with the Long March series of launch vehicles even if it were possible for them to launch satellites with U.S. components in them.
China’s second lunar orbiter, Chang’e 2: still in operation after 180 days.
Unfortunately, little of its scientific results have been released.
The new colonial movement: China’s first probe to Mars is now set for a November launch.
China on the march! The next flight of their Shenzhou manned spacecraft could be a three week unmanned mission designed to test rendezvous and docking with their soon-to-launch Tiangong 1 space laboratory.
The military space war between China and the U.S.
Some educated speculations about the next manned mission in the Chinese space program.
Chinese female astronaut identified.
Videos from the Chinese lunar probe, Chang’e 2.