Space 2003

Meh. Yang Liwei has returned to earth. It’s all good right? Sure it’s 42 years late, but still it was an achievement. Sure the pilot had Russian training and the rockets were probably manufactured through reverse engineering of Soviet technology, but no matter, China is still the 3rd country to launch a man into space.

Quoted by Chinese media just before he blasted off into space, China’s first astronaut promised he would “gain honor for the People’s Liberation Army and for the Chinese nation.”

“I will not disappoint the motherland,” Yang was quoted as saying. “I will complete each movement with total concentration.”

Meh. Translating to english make their words soooo corny. It sounds better in chinese…

Now that China has launched Shenzhou V successfully, the pressure all falls on NASA, whose fleet of 3 space shuttles is still grounded till September 2004. I predict there will be frequent Chinese space launch with an ultimate goal of building a space station. (the Shenzhou capsule had connectors outside the spacecraft, most likely to join with subsquent launches) Also, what I heard the news correctly, one of the capsule is left in orbit and the USA are worried because it has high-resolution reconnaissance cameras that can locate US aircraft carriers. Well you can’t blame China, the space program was approved as a military project.

I don’t think I need to link to any news article right? It’s all over the net, usually on the frontpage…