Chinese launch today

China is about to launch a Shenzhou 7 rocket today. 3 crewmembers, and
one will do an EVA. Flight to last about 3 days according to media reports.


Question: is this the second or 3rd chinese launch ? Or have there been
more launches that just didn't get western media coverage ?

When one looks at the rapid pace of USA flights during the 1960s, I am
somewhat curious on whether any conclusions can be drawn from the fact
that China seems to have a LOT of time between launches ?

Is this a budget issue ? Or is china dependant on limited russian
production capacity for its rockets ? (and if so, will china compete
against the USA for russian rocket/parts when the USA will be buying
extra Soyuz flights after the shuttle is retired ?)

John Doe wrote in
:

China is about to launch a Shenzhou 7 rocket today. 3
crewmembers, and one will do an EVA. Flight to last about 3
days according to media reports.


Question: is this the second or 3rd chinese launch ? Or
have there been more launches that just didn't get western
media coverage ?

It's the third manned launch; there were several unmanned
flights, too.

When one looks at the rapid pace of USA flights during the
1960s, I am somewhat curious on whether any conclusions can
be drawn from the fact that China seems to have a LOT of
time between launches ?

Probably not; they're making relatively fast progress as it is.
Apparently the next step will be a Salyut-style station, and
that mission won't culminate for a couple of years. They're
probably going as fast as warrants for their program.

Is this a budget issue ? Or is china dependant on limited
russian production capacity for its rockets ? (and if so,
will china compete against the USA for russian rocket/parts
when the USA will be buying extra Soyuz flights after the
shuttle is retired ?)

China builds all of its rockets and spacecraft. They're
originally based on Soviet ICBMs and the Soyuz spacecraft, but
highly modified and produced within China. They are currently
working on a new family of rockets of totally Chinese design
to replace the existing Long March family.

--Damon

"John Doe" wrote in message
...
When one looks at the rapid pace of USA flights during the 1960s, I am
somewhat curious on whether any conclusions can be drawn from the fact
that China seems to have a LOT of time between launches ?

The Soviet Union and the USA were competing against each other; the only
thing the Chinese Communist scum are competing against is their own people.

It's intended to draw attention away from all the corruption that is common
with all dictatorships (the baby milk crisis for instance).

It is said, that the designers of China's first "The East is Red" satellite
got their inspiration for the deployment mechanism from a folding
umbrella, which they had to study in a Peking department store
because they couldn't afford to buy it.

--
Graham.

%Profound_observation%

"Alan Erskine" writes:

It's intended to draw attention away from all the corruption that is common
with all dictatorships (the baby milk crisis for instance).

The milk poisoning thing has much more to do with capitalism gone wild
than with corruption in a dictatorship.

Jochem

--
"A designer knows he has arrived at perfection not when there is no
longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away."
- Antoine de Saint-Exupery

"Jochem Huhmann" wrote in message
...
"Alan Erskine" writes:

It's intended to draw attention away from all the corruption that is
common
with all dictatorships (the baby milk crisis for instance).

The milk poisoning thing has much more to do with capitalism gone wild
than with corruption in a dictatorship.

The Chinese will deal with the milk poisoning very severely. Unfortunately,
I feel incidents such as this just underscore the lack of sufficient
government oversight and (corporate) law enforcement in China.

Jeff
--
A clever person solves a problem.
A wise person avoids it. -- Einstein

"Jeff Findley" writes:

The Chinese will deal with the milk poisoning very severely. Unfortunately,
I feel incidents such as this just underscore the lack of sufficient
government oversight and (corporate) law enforcement in China.

Yes, definitely. But to be fair, such things have happened elsewhere,
too. Wine sweetened with glycol in Germany, olive oil adulterated with
mineral oil in Spain...


Jochem

--
"A designer knows he has arrived at perfection not when there is no
longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away."
- Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Jochem Huhmann wrote:
"Jeff Findley" writes:

The Chinese will deal with the milk poisoning very severely. Unfortunately,
I feel incidents such as this just underscore the lack of sufficient
government oversight and (corporate) law enforcement in China.

In february of last year, the german finance minister warned Paulson
during a G8 meeting about the unregulated nature of mortgages gone wild.
Both the USA and UK dismissed that warning and dismissed the call for
tighter regulations. (the german guy was interviewed by BBC yesterday).

And of course you have the more famous case of Perrier where management
were aware of Benzine being in the water and letting it being
distributed worldwide.


Now, realistically speaking, is it conceivable that China would have
been ready for this launch for some time, but kept it on hold until some
good PR was needed to counter some bad PR ? So the milk thing pops up,
and they decide it is time to launch ?

Or would such launches require so much planning and scheduling that
there is no way the government could meddle with it ?

Alan Erskine schreef:
"John Doe" wrote in message
...
When one looks at the rapid pace of USA flights during the 1960s, I am
somewhat curious on whether any conclusions can be drawn from the fact
that China seems to have a LOT of time between launches ?

The Soviet Union and the USA were competing against each other; the only
thing the Chinese Communist scum are competing against is their own people.

It's intended to draw attention away from all the corruption that is common
with all dictatorships (the baby milk crisis for instance).



Talking about dictatorship. When I was watching the launch yesterday
(cctv 9 on hotbird 2, for european readers) there was a bit of talking
about the tests that the astronauts had to have( correct english??).
Other than the usual tests on body and mind there were also IDEOLOGY tests.

The central bureau is your god. "Believe in me and you will ascend into
the sky."

"Roland" wrote in message
...
Talking about dictatorship. When I was watching the launch yesterday (cctv
9 on hotbird 2, for european readers) there was a bit of talking about the
tests that the astronauts had to have( correct english??).
Other than the usual tests on body and mind there were also IDEOLOGY
tests.

Not surprising - I mean; you wouldn't want all that 'high-tec' Russi...
sorry... Chinese equipment to go walkabout, now would you?