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  (Source: bellenews.com)
The crew will spend about three to four more days in the Tiangong 1 module before departing for home

China completed yet another milestone on its journey into space with its first manual docking at the Tiangong 1 module.

The Shenzhou 9 disconnected from the Tiangong 1 module on Sunday and successfully reconnected to the prototype space station later that same day. It marked China's first manual docking in space.

The Shenzhou 9, which is the successor to the Shenzhou 8 that performed an unmanned mission to Tiangong 1 last year, launched from the Jiuquan center in Northern China on June 16. It performed the first manned space docking on June 18 in automatic mode, and has now completed tests for manual mode.

"The success in manual docking represents a major breakthrough in our space rendezvous and docking technologies," said Wu Ping, a spokeswoman for China's manned space program.

It carried a crew of three, which included China's first female astronaut Liu Yang. She is accompanied by Jing Haipeng and Liu Wang.

The mission was expected to take about 10 days total. However, the crew will spend about three to four more days in the Tiangong 1 module before departing for home.

The next step for China is to perform another manned mission later this year and launch its permanent space station in 2020. According to Ping, China will have spent about 19 billion yuan ($3 billion USD) by the time the next Shenzhou mission is complete.

Last week, after learning about China's recent successes, the United States started worrying about its own position in the space race. Worries revolve around China's potential ability to renounce the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, which states that no one can claim national sovereignty in space. There are also worries about the U.S. government's space program. While the U.S. has the private sector (SpaceX) taking care of space-related business for now, there are concerns regarding the private sector's ability to uphold the American space effort without the government's support.

Source: MSNBC


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Piece of cake
By Pirks on 6/25/2012 7:17:58 PM , Rating: 3
Just give Musk whatever he needs - a few billion $$$ and best NASA minds he wants. He can then pwn Chinese without even looking, hehe.




RE: Piece of cake
By Schadenfroh on 6/25/12, Rating: 0
RE: Piece of cake
By JediJeb on 6/26/2012 5:00:20 PM , Rating: 1
Why fund "Free" contraception when abstinence literally is free?


RE: Piece of cake
By MechanicalTechie on 6/25/2012 8:47:32 PM , Rating: 3
Why feel threaten when another nation applies itself to ambitious goals?? I for one congratulate them... because without competition innovation and breakthrough’s crawl at a snail’s pace.

The more resources dedicated to space faring the more likely it will happen in our live time :)


RE: Piece of cake
By StormyKnight on 6/25/2012 11:48:34 PM , Rating: 2
Agreed! If it weren't for the Soviets, how would our space program have progressed?


RE: Piece of cake
By Shig on 6/26/2012 1:58:42 AM , Rating: 2
Making a profit beyond low earth orbit and just getting there are two completely different things. Getting there is so 40 years ago. The Chinese are capable of much more and I'm anxious to see it.


RE: Piece of cake
By wordsworm on 6/26/2012 9:09:10 AM , Rating: 3
It's not for nothing that the Chinese have been providing us with a vast array of significant, game-changing technology over the last two thousand years. It should not be surprising that they might well be the ones able to pave the way to meaningful missions to the moon: that is to say, not to just visit and plant a flag, but to also find a pragmatic purpose for the missions.


RE: Piece of cake
By ClownPuncher on 6/26/2012 1:22:21 PM , Rating: 2
More slowly and probably more incrementally, but probably more continually funded. After the cold war, the floor kinda fell out.


RE: Piece of cake
By delphinus100 on 6/26/2012 7:34:03 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
Agreed! If it weren't for the Soviets, how would our space program have progressed?


How much farther did it get, once we 'beat' them?

That's the problem when you view this as a 'race,' and not as a steady natural progression, regardless of what somebody else is doing.

China may be doing that. They will, if they're smart.


RE: Piece of cake
By fteoath64 on 6/28/2012 7:57:10 AM , Rating: 2
Not just Russian scientists but also Japanese who were very good on automatic docking. When it said "manual" docking, it is not completely manual. It is semi-automatic because the locking mechanism and damper design has a lot of intelligence built into it to ensure damage-free docking. With the weight and momentum of a space-craft, it becomes too easy to damage both dock modules in any docking attempt. Just try to drive slowly towards another car that is moving slowly and gently touch the bumper. Chances are you will bump it!. Not easy to have a gentle touch and this is on one plane. (ie 2D). With the craft in space, you have x-y-z axes movement plus momentum of forward movement. Thruster control is also tricky, so a completely manual dock probably DOES NOT exist. If they damage the dock, both the spacecraft and station would be USELESS!. Need external repairs which would be prohibitive!.

In the case of SpaceX's recent ISS dock. They cheated!!!. The Dragon module was "parked" 50 meters away and the Robot arm (Canadian made) yanked it into place by a human operator with several cameras looking at the arm doing a manual dock. A robot arm can do a precision dock due to its hydraulic operated joints. In fact the arm can be programmed for automatic docking if needed.


RE: Piece of cake
By JediJeb on 6/26/2012 5:05:15 PM , Rating: 2
Competition drives innovation far more than cooperation. Sad but true.

If we tried to make a world wide space exploration group where members of every country pooled their resources and manpower, space exploration would stagnate because almost all the decisions that needed to be made would be stalled in sub-committees of committees that reported back to advisers who were working in positions totally opposite of what their education was focused on. The UN is a perfect example of how trying to force different cultures into harmony with each other just does not work efficiently.


RE: Piece of cake
By johnsmith9875 on 6/26/2012 5:15:07 PM , Rating: 2
Kind of. Psychology is more at work here. It has been found that groups of 5 or less are the most productive. The UN has what 200+ members?


RE: Piece of cake
By delphinus100 on 6/26/2012 7:41:19 PM , Rating: 2
Amen. such an arrangement would just add another layer of bureaucracy over the mess we already have...

It also makes such projects hostage to the continued good will of all participants, for their entire duration,which would span multiple administrations here and in many of those other countries.

I mean, would we drop out if China made serious noises about Taiwan, or the Russians did something undesirable in Eastern Europe?

This is why I've always taken to heart a passage from one of many government-funded space policy studies in the 70's:

"The political situation in space will reflect the political situation on Earth. Not the other way around."


RE: Piece of cake
By delphinus100 on 6/26/2012 7:30:43 PM , Rating: 2
Modestly more Commercial Crew money would help. (Not a blank check. Too much money starts to make process more important than goals, and turns you into just another traditional NASA contractor)

Otherwise, Elon is doing just fine with the people he has...

(and the Chinese have already said they can't compete with his commercial launch prices.)


so close..!
By CloudFire on 6/26/2012 4:45:56 AM , Rating: 2
"She is accompanied by Jing Haipeng and Liu Wang."

I literally read Liu Kang the first time around and got excited. Really wished that would've been his name though! lol




RE: so close..!
By FaaR on 6/26/2012 10:34:09 AM , Rating: 2
Liu Kang better not try out his fireball and bicycle kick skills aboard that spacecraft though; I don't think those walls are built to stand up for such punishment... :)


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