China gets a man into space at last ! Some of you old folk might just remember way way back when the U.S.A. got John Glen into space to show the Russians they also had mad guys willing to ride a slowly exploding bomb into space. I dont think this Chinese ' Tygonaught ' ? was even born when that was going on.
Dean. ( always in awe of America - without being too condescending )
Well, a bit of perspective, China may be coming late to the party, but as usual they've found a way to do things cheaper, and perhaps smarter. Their entire space program runs on a budget of under $1.5 billion per year. The US is spending $28 billion this year, and has to hitch a ride with the Russians to put a man in space.
Gary
Well, how much of that $28 billion is spent on redundant systems and backup/safety issues? Down the road a bit, I can see China selling the world very cheap global communications services(using satellite tec) that will financially cripple related US industries who must pay a minimum wage, meet OSHA, clean air etc etc.
Larry
Was our #1 guy John Glenn (the "movie star") or Alan Shepherd?
Joe
Dean wrote:
Most of it is spent on the "standing army" ($5 billion a year for even a non-flying Shuttle, for example). The one thing that's cheap in China is standing armies.
The Chinese are also not as risk averse as the US has become. They have a lot of the "can do" spirit the US has lost. Even so, their flight safety record (unmanned up until now) is on a par with the Russians (who up until now have had the best record), and better than that of the US (who has killed the most astronauts).
For sure. Long March is already the least expensive satellite launch system in the world. It has a very good record too. The main thing keeping it from grabbing most of the current launch business is technology export rules which forbid most US satellites from being sent to China to be launched on it. When China starts making the satellites locally, that obstacle will be circumvented.
The Chinese are very serious about space. They plan to have their own space station, trips to the Moon and Mars, and an aggressive commercial space program. They also plan to do it relatively quickly, and relatively cheaply. They have a good chance of achieving their goals. They've observed the wrong directions taken by the US space program, and learned what not to do.
Gary
Well, at $.80/hour for machinist and $1/hour for engineers, that is about right. :-)
Glenn, first orbital. Shepherd, first suborbital.
Shepherd, first American in "space".
Joel. phx
More importantly they won't have the pansies asking why money is being spent on a folly when people are starving on the ground. They realize that if you're starving, you shouldn't be having more kids,....
Joel. phx
Yeah, like the backup/safety systems that prevent shuttles from blowing up on launch when the weather is too cold...err...oops, scratch that!
Yeah, like the backup/safety systems that prevent shuttles from burning up on re-entry if a couple of tiles get damaged...err...oops, scratch that!
The question I have is: how much of that $28 billion is spent on redundant bureaucracy and bloated administration/rice-bowl issues?
First Russian in space: Yuri Gagarin, 12-Apr-1961
First American in space: Alan Shepard, 05-May-1961
First Communist Chinese in space: John Glenn, 29-Oct-1998 (Chinagate)
Now, now, DeepDiver! After all, it's the American way!
Harold
"DeepDiver" .
NASA might not be perfect, but at least a free press means you get to see their dirty laundry eventually. You dont get the Chinese Government covering up - but why should they bother when you're not allowed to ask questions in the first place !
Dean.
More power to them! We've obviously darn near given up.
Sort of depends upon your definition. The X-15 pilots were definitely high enough to get astronaut wings, but that would take the glory away from the Mercury project, so we have just sort of forgotten them. Our revisionist history.
How many fool people would ever ride a rocket into space that said "Made in China" on it. Of course if something went wrong they would probably just shoot everybody that was remotely responsible. If us Americans would STOP buying all the chinese crap it would put a quick end to china's cash flow. Then we wouldn't be worried about what the chinese are doing.
tim
Don't forget that the US space program hardware was built by the lowest bidder.
-Carl
Oh come on, you would need to compare deaths per pounds of cargo delivered into space to make any meaningful safety record comparison. steve
You can say with certianty how many the Russians killed?
Yes, I love that old X-15 rocket plane ( which I think Neil Armstrong got to drive a few times ). And there is a story about the definition of where space starts being changed once the X-15 had been higher than any other reusable craft. They slapped on another couple of tens of thousands of feet to get the X-15 project out of the record books. It was a fight between NASA ( called something else back then ) and the Air Force.
Dean. ( often wrong, occassionally appologises )
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