Wed, Oct 15, 2003
China has finally
launched a manned rocket into earth orbit. While details are few so
long as the ultimate success of the flight is still be determined,
China has finally done what the USSR/Russians and USA have
been doing for forty years. In so doing; the have become the third
nation (out of three) to take on a manned spaceflight program.
The Chinese spacecraft, named the Shenzhou-5, was launched from
the Jiuquan Satellite launch Center in the NW province of Gansu at
0900, Wednesday. The launch vehicle, itself, was a well-known
rocket, China's Long March II F, crewed by a single "Taikonaut,"
revealed to be a Lt. Col Yang Liwei, 38, of the People's Liberation
Army (PLA).
According to Chinese media sources, Yang was born in June 1965
in Suizhong County of NE China's Liaoning Province and joined
the Chinese People's Liberation Army at 18. He graduated from
the No. 8 Aviation College of the PLA Air Force in 1987 with a
bachelor's degree and became a fighter pilot. He is a 1350 hour
pilot and became a member of China's first group of astronauts in
January of 1998. Liwei earns all of $1200 a month for his
efforts.
This flight came after four previous unmanned tests of the
launch vehicle and capsule that lasted as long as a week before
their recovery/landing by parachute. The current flight is
expected to take some 20 hours. Surprisingly; after a week of hype
by the Chinese government leading up to the actual launch, the
event was not broadcast live by Chinese television.
In 1995, after a series of live television broadcasts of
various satellite tests, one launch went awry, killing six people
on the ground -- apparently a contributing factor to Chinese
official's current reluctance in broadcasting this historic event
on live television.
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