Does anyone know of any live broadcasts planned for the Shenzhou going up on Wednesday? I wonder if NASA TV will pick up the feed, or maybe C-SPAN or one of those esoteric international feeds.
If anyone hears of anything, please let us know - I'd like to set the Tivo to record it.
Sigh - it doesn't look like a live broadcast will happen.
Interesting that they're trying to keep the whole thing quiet now that every Western media outlet has picked up on the story. With NORAD being able to track liftoff events pretty much anywhere on the planet, we'll probably know if it was a failure even before the Chinese do.
tah
Sigh - it doesn't look like a live broadcast will happen.
How many failures were there before Gagarin's successful flight?
How many failures were there before Sputnik-1's successful flight?
Bob Kaplow NAR # 18L TRA # "Impeach the TRA BoD" >>> To reply, remove the TRABoD!
I never thought it would in the first place. If they broadcast the launch live, and the rocket (for whatever reason) failed to function properly, they'd be an international laughing stock.
Better for them to tape the launch - if it goes well, loudly proclaim success. If it fails - say it was an unmanned 'test' launch, and erase all records of the unnamed astronaut.
And Gagarin wasn't *truly* successful - since he had to abandon his vehicle before touchdown. ;-)
I dont recall the US being a laughing stock when many Mercury launch attempts were scrubbed at the last minute. Even shuttle flights have been delayed for days.
Bob Kaplow NAR # 18L TRA # "Impeach the TRA BoD" >>> To reply, remove the TRABoD!
I heard that Khruschev made fun of our failed first attempt at launching an unmanned satellite, with jokes about "exploding cigars"... and the Chinese, so I hear, are a lot touchier about "losing face" than the Americans.
-dave w
Neither do I - but remember that the Chinese leadership thinks differently than the Americans do. Image ("Face") holds a great deal of meaning to them, so a failed (not scrubbed...) launch would cause them to lose face. It wouldn't mean much to us, but it would likely cause a *major* shakeup in their space efforts.
The purpose of the flight was to gain world prestige by becomeing the third nation to put a man in orbit. This story was covered in a small artical on page 6 of the newspaper that I read. I think thier goals would have been better met with a live braoodcast and open press coverage.
Alan
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