I'd like to congratulate China and all of Degreeinfo's Chinese readers on China's successful launch of taikonaut Yang Liwei into earth orbit. China has made a great stride in its space program, and we all hope for Lt. Col. Yang's safe return.
Reports are that taikonaut Yang Liwei's capsule re-entered the atmosphere safely and descended onto the Gobi desert under a large parachute. Yang climbed out and announced that he felt fine.
Too bad the abortionists and those who committed the atrocities of Tian'anmen Square weren't sent into space, permanently!
Re: Re: Congratulations to Chinese Taikonaut Along with all of the sanctimonious Americans who hate China, yet want to take away the very freedoms that make our contries different. Dictatorship is fine, as long as it has a Christian veneer.
So now that the Chinese have done what John Glenn did 40 years ago we can praise them and start outsourcing all of our outer-space needs to them. Since they have this vast knowledge of space flight we can have the shuttle built in China at 1/3 the labor. Maybe we can outsource our astronauts !!! What makes this communist dictatorship different from Cuba? We boycott and embargo Cuba but give the Chinese the shirts off our backs !!! (or the jobs that made the shirts). Sorry - I am a little sick and tired of China and how American business is selling out to these communist to save a dollar. There will be a point in time when these Chinese products flood the US and no one will be able to purchase them because most are working at minimum wage - they are indeed selling us the rope to hang ourselves.
I still remember when I was a kid, my mother would awaken me before dawn (California time). My whole family would gather in the dark living room in front of our antique TV, watching Alan Sheherd or John Glenn perched in their tiny capsules atop tons of highly explosive rocket fuel. As the countdown got down to those excruciating final seconds, all I could think of was the complexity of the endeavor and the likelihood that the thing would explode like a bomb or veer wildly out of control. Space travel used to be exciting. It was dangerous, and we accepted it. We knew there would be casulties, but ultimately men with the 'right stuff', backed up by legions of guys in short sleeve white shirts and pocket protectors (and slide rules!) would power us through. We used to believe that man would continue to expand into space and would explore the solar system in our lifetimes. (The movie '2001' showed some of the expectations of where we would be.) We thought that we lived at the dawn of a new age. Then after the Moon missions, the thing died. Even on an academic discussion board, nobody cares. Nobody gives a shit, except as an occasion for political venting. I've tried to interest people in Bert Rutan's efforts to put up a suborbital craft that he designed and built himself, and met nothing but yawns. Well, the Chinese are excited. They did something extraordinary, and they think that it's very cool. So do I. This week, the Chinese reminded me of Americans a generation ago, when Americans still knew how to dream big dreams.
Hey Bill, maybe we're about the same age! I remember our grade two teacher as she stopped the lesson and had us kids move to the windows. She asked us to look up into the sky and, as we all had our necks craned upwards, she said, "Right now, orbiting our planet, John Glenn is walking in space!". It's difficult to describe how I felt at that moment, suffice to say that it was my "where were you when Kennedy was shot?" (Heck, for all I know, it was someone other than Glenn, and I have a 'false memory') So began a life long facination with space. I, too. remember 2001: A Space Odyssey - saw it when it first came out - and looked forward to my future, a future that included space travel. I honestly believed, as a kid, that I would "set foot" in space before I died - as a tourist, perhaps. Sadly, I have relegated myself to reading science fiction for my dose of "how things could've been". You Yanks dropped the ball! Dammit, by now we (you guys)should have had a base on the moon, have already had a manned mission to Mars! I, too, am excited that there is enthusiasm somewhere in the world regarding our species attempts at exporing the last frontier. You Americans will be goaded on (I hope!!!) to achieve more than any other country, especially a godlesspinkofascistdicommiedictatorship. But, if it takes a communist country to get revved up about space again... call me a Pinko and Mao rocks! Regards, Dan
Re: Re: Congratulations to Chinese Taikonaut Most foreign policy/affairs experts agree with your suspicions.
Partially false, at least. The first person to walk in space was Ed White. Glenn never did. White was later killed -- along with Grissom and Chaffee -- in the Apollo 1 fire.
I wonder how much of the technology (granted it is dated) used to get this person in orbit was stolen.
Not much reason to steal it. Most of that technology is readily available to anyone interested enough to go search for it. There are probably a couple members of degreeinfo that could design a similar type of rocket. Tom Nixon
