China's first astronaut lands safely

China's First Astronaut Lands on Earth
Wed Oct 15, 8:56 PM ET

By JOE McDONALD, Associated Press Writer

BEIJING - China's first astronaut returned safely to Earth on Thursday when his craft touched down on time and as planned after 21 hours in orbit. Beijing's mission control declared the country's landmark debut flight "a success."

The craft carrying Lt. Col. Yang Liwei landed by parachute on the grasslands of Inner Mongolia in northern China at dawn Thursday, the official Xinhua News Agency said. Minutes later, he emerged from the capsule without help and waved at rescuers, though footage showed him appearing a bit dazed.

story.news.yahoo.com.../ap/20031016/ap_on_sc/china_space_031016002656



...and no wonder! Landings on Earth are much harder than landings on water!

Yeah,

So i have heard.. 12 hours, 52 minutes ago..

90 minutes for one round around globe, that times 14 and we get 21 hours.. seems right..

this is fantastic!



Project 921!

Shenzhou Spaceship!

"Astronauts"!

Go China, Go!



Btw, funny how CNN isnt really telling much about this..

They are 40 years late and they will reload the armement run...

I feel back in 60's today, even if i wasn't borned in 69.

But I must admit that I have respect for the poor guy who flight 90 minutes in space in this middle age sputnik-like ship...


www.survivalarts.com...

[Edited on 16-10-2003 by Nans DESMICHELS]

Originally posted by Nans DESMICHELS
But I must admit that I have respect for the poor guy who flight 90 minutes in space in this middle age sputnik-like ship...


www.survivalarts.com...

[Edited on 16-10-2003 by Nans DESMICHELS]

1) He was there for 14 90 minute orbits.. 21 hours!
2) That is only the re-entery vehicle..
3) It has same design as 'Soljus'..
4) The vehicle is heated up when re-entering.. (it really doesnt look that bad..

Btw, funny how CNN isnt really telling much about this..

They are, but not on the front page (and that's the weird part...) Initially, I had to go to the Space section to see a story about it....

Originally posted by Gazrok

Btw, funny how CNN isnt really telling much about this..

They are, but not on the front page (and that's the weird part...) Initially, I had to go to the Space section to see a story about it....

Well that was what i ment..

As this really is a front page 'story' / 'event'..



Seems like CCN is 'playing Chinese down'.. like this was 'no biggie'..

but this is!

actually CNN had a whole lot of info about china's space program befor and had links on the front page. had info about the history of the chinese space program and a bunch of other stuff. when the thing first took off it was on the front page for a while... well untill the gaza bombings happened anyway.

Nans: don't underestimate the Chinese spacecraft. it's actually highly reliable... more so then the US shuttle from what i've heard. the Chinese and Russian spacecrafts are supposed to be the saftest ones around. just because China is going into space 40 years after US and Russia doesn't make it any less special.

the way i see it. it's the US that has some catching up to do. sure, China might not have the latest and greatest tech, but there craft brand new. they improved appon the Russian design. NASA really hasn't done anything new with there shuttle in 30 years except to upgrade the computers. which was done not to long ago really.

but i sure would like to see NASA in better shape and it would be great to see the Chinese space program and NASA having some friendly competition (i sure hope it would be friendly).

This is interesting too.........

link

hmmmmm........ could be another reason for the U.S. push for space weapons too.