China entra na corrida espacial e lança estação orbital
27 DE SETEMBRO DE 2011
Maria Emilia Alencar
A China lançará entre quinta e sexta-feira a base de sua estação espacial, numa iniciativa para aproximar o país asiático da Rússia e dos Estados Unidos em termos de corrida espacial. Ambos os países já mantêm uma unidade tripulada. Segundo o governo, está tudo pronto, e agora o que resta é esperar pelas melhores condições meteorológicas. Nossa correspondente em Pequim, Janaína Silveira, explica a importância deste passo para o programa espacial chinês.
http://www.portugues.rfi.fr/geral/20110927-china-lanca-base-de-sua-estacao-es...
A New Space Race? What China's Tiangong 1 Launch Means for NASA
Posted by Amy_Teitel on Thursday, Sep 29, 2011
China has launched Tiangong 1, a prototype for its proposed orbital space laboratory. While a successful mission will be a significant step forward for China, it's unclear what (if anything) it will mean for NASA and the United States' long-standing dominance in space.
China's space program, China National Space Administration (CNSA), has its technological roots in the Cold War. Not long after the People's Republic of China (PRC) was established in 1949, Chairman Mao Zedong and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev formed an alliance known as the Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship, Alliance, and Mutual Assistance. When the US threatened to attack China with nuclear bombs during the Korean war, China began developing its own nuclear arsenal. This branch of militarization reflected the PRC's Soviet friendship; the first Chinese missile was a reverse engineered replica of the Soviet R-2 rocket.
When the partnership between the PRC and USSR ended in 1960, China still held Soviet rocket secrets and continued the development of missiles with the R-2 as a base throughout the 1960s. But even with a successful model, it would be a decade before China entered space. On April 24, 1970, it put an unmanned satellite into orbit. A second followed on March 3, 1971.
This success led to China's first attempt at a manned spaceflight program. On March 15, 1971, the first 19 taikonauts (The term for Chinese astronaut -- taikong is the Chinese word for space, naut the Greek for sailor) were selected. Politics, however, got in the way and the manned program quickly fell apart.
Things changed after Mao's death in 1976. A power struggle erupted until Deng Xiaoping emerged as the new leader of the PRC in 1980. While this new rule killed some of China's missile development activities, it did benefit at least one program. The Long March rocket survived and was given the support of the country's new leader. This was China's first reliable and successful rocket with positive return. In 1985, China began a commercial launch program that has sent over thirty European and Asian satellites in orbit in the last twenty-six years.
China's manned program got a second start in 1986 but manned flight was still far in the future since the technology hadn't caught up. Not until a decade later in 1996 was the first Long March rocket tested. It failed and crashed 22 seconds after launch.
But soon China's luck began to change. In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the PRC's foundation, the CNSA successfully launched the unmanned Shenzhou 1. Shenzhou was to be China's manned spacecraft, and this first flight was a milestone for the nation. Manned flights weren't far behind. On October 15, 2003, Yang Limei became the first taikonaut in orbit on Shenzhou 5 with two manned missions following in 2005 and 2008.
With Tiangong 1 -- which means 'Heavenly Palace' -- China is stepping up its presence in space. It launched this morning (for the US) on the Long March 2F rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Centre.
http://www.motherboard.tv/2011/9/29/a-new-space-race-what-china-s-tiangong-1-...
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NBC Report: China--The Rising Superpowerby arri565684 views
@NeoTranshuman not fully...
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They are coming...
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