Shenzhou 5
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China Reports First Successful Space Docking
China says it has successfully carried out its first-ever rendezvous of two orbiting spacecraft. Year Event Country 1961 1st Manned Spaceflight Valentina Tereshkova, USSR/Russia 1st American Manned Spaceflight Alan Shepard, US 1962 1st American to Orbit Earth John Glenn, US 1963 1st Woman in Space Valentina Tereshkova, USSR/Russia 1965 1st-Ever Spacewalk Alexei Leonov, USSR/Russia First American Spacewalk Edward White, US 1967 1st Spaceflight Fatality Vladimir Komarov, USSR/Russia Apollo 1 Tragedy US 1968 1st Manned Lunar Mission Apollo 8, US 1969 1st Manned Lunar Landing Apollo 11, US 1975 1st Joint US-Soviet Mission Apollo-Soyuz, USSR/Russia-US 1981 1st Launch of Space Shuttle Columbia, US 1983 1st US Female Astronaut Sally Ride, US 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger Tragedy US 2000 1st Permanent International Space Station Crew US 2003 Space Shuttle Columbia Tragedy US 1st Chinese Manned Spaceflight Shenzhou 5, China 2004 1st Commercial Human Spaceflight SpaceShip One, US 2011 st US Space Shuttle Flight Atlantis, US 1st Docking of Chinese Spacecraft Unmanned, China Officials say the unmanned Shenzhou-8 spacecraft docked with the experimental Tiangong-1 module Thursday morning about 340 kilometers above the Earth's surface. The sophisticated procedure is a critical step in China's ambitions to establish a manned space station by 2020. The official Xinhua news agency says Premier Wen Jiabao and other top officials witnessed the historic event at the Beijing Aerospace Flight Control Center. President Hu Jintao sent a congratulatory message from France, where he is attending the G-20 summit. The two joined spacecraft will orbit the Earth for 12 days before separating and repeating the procedure. After two more days together, the Shenzhou-8 will undock from the module and return to Earth. Australian space analyst Morris Jones tells VOA the docking maneuver was a critical step forward for China's ambitous space program. "This is a very significant step," Jones said. "Because if China could not achieve rendezvous and docking in outer space, they would be unable to operate a space laboratory, or build a space station or do anything complex in outer space. Rendezvous and docking is a basic, fundamental skill in space flight." However, he pointed out that China is only now mastering skills that the United States and Russia have had for more than 40 years. "I would say with the successful rendezvous and docking, China is probably at much the same level as the USA in the late 1960s," Jones noted. "Probably around the year 1967, I would say, is where China is at the moment." China plans two more docking missions with the Tiangong-1 module next year, with at least one of them carrying a live crew that could include China's first female astronaut. But Jones says China has some ambitious plans for unmanned space flight as well. "They are going to land a small robotic rover on the moon in 2013, and then a few years later we expect them to land a robotic spacecraft that will bring rock samples from the moon back to earth. China is also launching a small orbiter to Mars before the end of this month. They are doing that piggyback with the Russians. And they are also planning larger Mars probes of their own," he said. Jones said many outside analysts believe China's long-term goal is to land astronauts on the moon. Some information for this report was provided by AP and AFP.
Experts Disagree on Military Significance of China's Manned Space Program
Two Chinese astronauts are orbiting Earth for five days in the Shenzhou-6 spacecraft, exactly two years after Beijing launched its first human into space aboard the Shenzhou-5. Experts consider the successful 2003 mission to have been, China's entry into the small club of world-class space powers. But they are divided over how much China's manned space efforts will help it militarily. China has been mastering space technology since the 1950s and launched its first satellite in 1970. Since then, it has been developing a space program with growing military capabilities, including long- and short-range nuclear missiles and communications, navigation, and reconnaissance satellites. "The Chinese space program is an outgrowth of their missile-technology development effort," said Dean Cheng, an Asian affairs specialist at the Center for Naval Analysis, a government-funded policy research organization near Washington. "Mao Zedong pushed for [missile] development in the 1950s," he continued. "Once [China] had constructed a missile, it began to devote more significant resources towards developing satellites and set a series of markers, including being only the fifth country to launch its own satellite into orbit and the third country to develop a space-based reconnaissance system." Why has Beijing been so aggressive in its space program? A retired U.S. Air Force expert on China's armed forces, Lieutenant Colonel Mark Stokes, says a major incentive is its desire for military superiority against Taiwan. "Space assets, as well as countering for example the U.S. use of space or other countries' use of space, are important force multipliers that can help to even the playing field when you are going up against a technologically superior adversary," said Colonel Stokes. "Space assets, I believe, will play a major role in any future use of force against Taiwan and preventing foreign intervention in a Taiwan scenario." But does China's manned space program enhance its military prowess? Experts agree that it does, but they differ on how much. Mr. Stokes says an unmanned Shenzhou capsule launched in 2002 had a significant electronic intelligence capability. In addition, he says the manned program will lead to more sophisticated spacecraft with military potential, such as a space shuttle, a space station, and an airplane that can reach orbital altitudes - an aerospace plane. "China is serious in investing in these things," he added. "The space shuttle in particular and the aerospace plane in particular have significant military applications in the future. So one has to look at this simply as a stepping stone for a longer-range program to make them a significant player in military space in the future." Military applications for manned Chinese spacecraft could include the in-orbit launch and repair of military spacecraft. The U.S. space shuttle has deployed an undisclosed number of secret military satellites, and astronauts' maintenance of the orbiting Hubble telescope is a model for fixing things in space. But one expert believes that Beijing's manned space program would provide only marginally better military capabilities than the other space hardware it has. He is Larry Wortzel of the Heritage Foundation, another Washington policy analysis group. "They already have so many other programs to weaponize and militarize space that would be more effective in a shorter time," said Mr. Wortzel. "I would rather see them go ahead with the manned space program and use the money on that because I think in the near term, it makes the United States, Taiwan, and Japan safer." Dean Cheng of the Center for Naval Analysis agrees that the Shenzhou spacecraft series has limited military utility. He argues that its main purpose is not for war. "A manned program, as we saw with [the U.S. space shuttle] Columbia, holds the potential for tragedy and is a remarkably fragile capability for arguably a marginal benefit," he said. "I think that the primary considerations are instead prestige and economics. It says to the world that 'we are now an advanced nation'." As Mr. Cheng puts it, the space frontier is now the realm of dragons.
Astronauts Arrive at China Launch Site - 2003-10-13
China has announced that three of its astronauts have arrived at the launch site for this week's first-ever manned space mission. People are getting excited despite little media coverage in the country. The official Xinhua News Agency says the three so-called Taikonauts are undergoing tests at the launch site - suggesting only one would make the trip into space. Many Chinese have been eagerly awaiting details of the country's first manned space launch, which officials now say will take place between Wednesday and Friday. China's space program dates back more than three decades to 1970, when a Chinese-made rocket boosted the Mao 1 satellite into space. The launch of the Shenzhou 5 space capsule, however, will mark China's entry to an exclusive club. Only the United States and Russia have put a human in orbit. The launch is widely seen as a bid by China to gain international prestige. "This is probably going to have a much bigger impact inside China as an expression of national resolve and national pride, than it will in the outside world," said John Pike, director of the Washington-based Global Security. "I think that most of the rest of the world is going to shrug it off as being a political stunt that the Soviets and the Americans did four decades ago." The Shenzhou ("Divine Vessel") 5 is the size of a small truck. Small, perhaps when compared to the U.S. space shuttle. But it is a dream come true for many Chinese. "I have been waiting for this for more than 20 years," said Chen Lan, a software engineer in Shanghai who runs a popular website called Go Taikonauts. "I remember when I was a child, I watched China's first space flight. Since then, I have expected China to launch a man into space maybe … it will be a reality. Of course I am excited. The demonstrations of pride and national unity are just what the ruling Communist Party is hoping for. The launch will coincide with the conclusion of the annual gathering of party leaders in Beijing this week. Party leaders are expected to adopt a number of new economic and electoral reforms. Analysts say the changes are meant to portray the Communists as still relevant at a time when China is moving further away from the socialist model and becoming more of a full-fledged market economy. Chinese state media say the launch will take place at the Jiuqian Space Center, in northwestern Gansu province. The capsule is expected to land after orbiting about the Earth 14 times during a 21-hour period. The Shenzhou program, supported and run by the military, has been carried out under much secrecy. Most people got their first glimpse of the launch preparations on Monday, when Chinese state television began airing news stories and a documentary on the upcoming mission.
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1 The launch of the Shenzhou 5, China's first manned spacecraft, has brought both congratulations and competitiveness from other nations with space programs.
2 Chinese state media Thursday quote a senior aerospace official, Yuan Jie, as saying that the Shenzhou 5 capsule will send a human being into space before the end of this year.
3 China sent up the Shenzhou 5 manned space capsule, becoming only the third nation after the former Soviet Union and the United States to put a human in orbit.