F.O.R.D. = Fuel. Oil & Repair Daily
Originally posted by Valhall
Update on China...this article just released:
Report: China manned moon trip by 2020
BEIJING (AP) -- China plans to land a human on the moon by 2020, the country's chief space official said in comments broadcast by state television.
"By 2020, we will achieve visiting the moon," said Luan Enjie, director of the National Aerospace Bureau. Luan used a verb that specifically describes a human act.
www.cnn.com...

Originally posted by intelgurl
Do you think that the US has a secret space program and if so to what extent, ie: Space planes, secret space stations ???
Obviously Russia seems to think so, below is a link to an article in Pravda:
Pravda: The USA has been working on secret, new-generation space planes
Thoughts anyone?
Originally posted by HerExcellency
Originally posted by intelgurl
Do you think that the US has a secret space program and if so to what extent, ie: Space planes, secret space stations ???
Obviously Russia seems to think so, below is a link to an article in Pravda:
Pravda: The USA has been working on secret, new-generation space planes
Thoughts anyone?
It makes strategic sense that someone in the American military industrial complex is. I'm not suggesting that the Americans have "black programs" (we all know that they have and probably do), what I am suggesting is that it makes good business sense that someone is and will market the ideal to the USA military planners.
War is shifting vertically to the ionosphere and near space. It has been for quite some time. It is the American thought process to have overlapping layers of offensive and defensive capabilities. A space plane fits into that envelope quite nicely.
Remember the initial designs of the Space Shuttle had an offensive laser onboard. As the mission changed it was removed (that and the powerplant needed to fire it would have taken up most of the cargo bay.)
So if Lockheed, or Boeing is working on a concept for future sale to the Government it only makes sense.
hrxll
India is planning a moon mission
Originally posted by ZeroDeep
India is planning a moon mission
All that money should be set aside to help out the poor not send a little Hindu to the moon.
NEW DELHI, India -- India will send a spacecraft to the moon by 2008, prime
minister Atal Behari Vajpayee said in his Independence Day address to the
nation Aug. 15. The announcement has put an end to suspense over the fate of
the roughly $100 million project of the Indian Space Research Organization
(ISRO) that was waiting for a formal sanction for over eight months.
www.tdf.it...
This money could go a long way to build hosptials, and relief clinics for the poor.
www.kamat.com...
I find it pathetic that goverments can just spend so much money on meaningless things.
Deep