China's Space Program News Thread

[bd popeye]

Re: china manned space - news and views

My congradulations to the Chinese on their sucessful space mission.Excellent job!

The next Generation NASA Manned space Veicle after the expansive and unsafe Space shuttles

Unsafe? Pleezze.. the Space Shuttles have completed 121 sucessful missions. And 29 Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and Skylab missions. More manned missions the rest of the World combined.. And yes NASA has had two disasters. ..By the way there is a 37% chance of failure in any manned space mission. I cannot recall where I read that.

..will be similer to the Russian/ Chinese Soyuz/ Shenzhou model, The Orion Veicle. Using parachute instead of Gliding back to earth, although it will be able to carry more Astronaut than even the Shenzhou and the reentry viecle might be made reusable.

Have you ever seen the old NASA Apollo module?? Very similar in appearence to the Orion. And it used a parachute..That was over 40 years ago. If I'm not m istaken NASA had another desuign but the name escapes me..

Other possible competitor in the space program is Russian, which still have the safest and most reliable space launch rockets in te world with a track record unmatched by even the USA.

Really?? Why have they not made more manned space flights than NASA? The Russians have made 105 total manned space flight since 1961. A very sucessful program. Second only to NASA.

Did you know the Russians went from March 1965 until April 1967 without a single manned launch. Curious.

I've made these same or similar points before. But many of you seem to think NASA Space Shuttle is a failure when in fact it is the most sucessful manned space program in history. The facts do not lie. That's OK. you young fellows think what you wish or see things as you wish. I'm fine with that.

I just wish the PRC well in it's space exploration missions.

 

[crobato]

Re: china manned space - news and views

And its so expensive that one flight costs more than the entire Chinese space program for one year.

You think about it. When the Space Shuttle came, NASA stopped going to the Moon. Too expensive. What you don't see has been the alternative costs---the cumulative effect of Mankind losing momentum in the exploration of space. The cost of the shuttle means less somewhere else.

They are not replacing the Space Shuttle with another Space Shuttle for a reason. And with what is happening on the US economy today, the whole program has to be reevaluated.

 

[yehe]

Re: china manned space - news and views

My congradulations to the Chinese on their sucessful space mission.Excellent job!



Unsafe? Pleezze.. the Space Shuttles have completed 121 sucessful missions. And 29 Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and Skylab missions. More manned missions the rest of the World combined.. And yes NASA has had two disasters. ..By the way there is a 37% chance of failure in any manned space mission. I cannot recall where I read that.



Have you ever seen the old NASA Apollo module?? Very similar in appearence to the Orion. And it used a parachute..That was over 40 years ago. If I'm not m istaken NASA had another desuign but the name escapes me..



Really?? Why have they not made more manned space flights than NASA? The Russians have made 105 total manned space flight since 1961. A very sucessful program. Second only to NASA.

Did you know the Russians went from March 1965 until April 1967 without a single manned launch. Curious.

I've made these same or similar points before. But many of you seem to think NASA Space Shuttle is a failure when in fact it is the most sucessful manned space program in history. The facts do not lie. That's OK. you young fellows think what you wish or see things as you wish. I'm fine with that.

I just wish the PRC well in it's space exploration missions.

Well, the space shuttle is actually less safe, except for the 2 major accident, seems it doesn't have a launch escape mechanism like the Orion or Shenzhou, the insular tiles ALWAYS have some dropped off during launch or reentry, which is very dangerous at reentry, and hull fatigue is also a problem since it's reusable, thus very high maintainence cost is needed.

I know about the Apollo ofc, the new Orion is like an enlarged Apollo, but Apollo are the same kind of model as Soyuz/Shenzhou, unlike the shuttle, that's what I meant, not trying to diss NASA program here, just I belive that the Risk and cost considered, the shuttle isn't really worth it, and NASA seems to realise that now.

And btw., when I gave praise to the Russians, I wasn't really talking about manned space program only, so maybe you missunderstood me, the russian overall space launch record, the share number of rocket launch is unmatched by even the USA, this was what I meant, but ofc, Manned Program wise, NASA do have far more astronauts sent up than even the Russian

 

[Schumacher]

Re: china manned space - news and views

Another milestone is the release of a mini sat orbiting Shenzou7. Here's a photo of Shenzou7 taken by the sat.

 

[Schumacher]

Re: china manned space - news and views

Congratulations ! on the safe return of Shenzou7 crew.

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[Neutral Zone]

Re: china manned space - news and views

The Shuttle has been a very successful programme, to be fair to NASA today's shuttle is nothing like the vehicle they originally proposed in the early 1970's. They were forced to take the current configuration because of budget cuts by Nixon. There is a huge flaw in the design in that there is no way of getting the crew off in a launch emergency like Challenger. Capsules like Apollo, Soyuz and Shenzhou have a launch escape system to pull the spacecraft clear of the launch rocket. Here's a video of the failed launch of Soyuz T-10-1 in 1983 showing the escape system in action.

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The other thing to remember about the Shuttle is that it was meant to be part of a larger program involving the construction of a space station as a staging post for missions to The Moon and Mars, but that part of the programme was canned leaving just the Shuttle. It's only with the ISS in the last 10 years that you've seen the Shuttle doing the job it was originally designed to do). The Shuttle was only saved from cancellation because that would have decimated the American aerospace industry but without the space station the Shuttle had no obvious role. Orion is very much Apollo on steroids, it's a more adaptable system that can be configured for various different missions (ISS, Moon, Mars). Speaking as someone who is passionate about space exploration and was born after the Apollo glory days I don't care if the next human on the Moon is American, Chinese, Russian, French, Brazilian or Kenyan as long as it's someone!!

BTW congratulations to the crew of Shenzhou 7 on a successful mission and a safe return! :china:

 

[Scratch]

Re: china manned space - news and views

I for one don't think comparing the shuttle with todays rocket technology is really fair.
The only real same tech age competitor to the shuttle is the Soyuz program, and the Shuttle can lift 3,5 times the payload, I think. It contributed a lot in mankinds quest for the conquest of space.
That nowadays modern rockets designed 30 yrs later appear superior and more efficient doesn't mean the Shuttle was a mistake, just that it's due for replacement.

 

[bd popeye]

Re: china manned space - news and views

Thanks to all members for contributing to this thread

Happy to see the Shenzou7 crew safe return:china: A very short but very successful mission.:china:. Anyone have any information either rumor or truth when the next Chinese manned mission is scheduled??

I see they land on land like the Russians rather than the ocean like NASA choose back in the days of Mercury,Gemini & Apollo. Actually that's how I got interested in the USN. Those NASA astronauts were recovered by helos from USN CVAs or CVSs..It just fascinated me..That was over 40 years ago..

I

 

[coolieno99]

Re: china manned space - news and views

Youtube videos of Shenzhou 7 mission:

Launch of Shenzhou 7:

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Spacewalk:

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[yehe]

Re: china manned space - news and views

Thanks to all members for contributing to this thread

Happy to see the Shenzou7 crew safe return:china: A very short but very successful mission.:china:. Anyone have any information either rumor or truth when the next Chinese manned mission is scheduled??

I see they land on land like the Russians rather than the ocean like NASA choose back in the days of Mercury,Gemini & Apollo. Actually that's how I got interested in the USN. Those NASA astronauts were recovered by helos from USN CVAs or CVSs..It just fascinated me..That was over 40 years ago..

I

Yeah, Shenzhou 8 and 9 and 10 will be send in a row, 8 and 9 will be unmanned and will dock with eachother to form a minispace station, 8 will not really be a Shenzhou as it will be a bigger and heavier Lab module, while shenzhou 10 will have 3 Taikonauts to dock with the mini space station, my guess of the time of launch is around 2009 to 2010, Shenzhou 7 will again become heavily upgraded like all of it's predcessor, but I heard the Shenzhou 9 will become a standard Shenzhou for the future and no more major upgrading of the veicle will be conducted after SZ9.
My guess is Shenzhou 9 will be used until the new Long March V rocket has finished developement, and then a new larger manned veicle will be developed for it to be launched by the new rocket, the Long March V is supposed to be a highly modular designed rocket, so it should be easily adapted for different role and cargo weight.

From shenzhou 8 and forward all the manned mission would proberbly be launched from the new WenChang Space launch center In the Southern Hainan Island, so I do also wonder whether the reentry module will continuie to land on land in Inner Mongolia or maybe like NASA on the sea near the space center instead?