Eric's Beijing Diary

I watched the launch of China's second manned space flight yesterday. The weather at the launch site was very cloudy, with a pretty low ceiling. Very shortly after the rocket left the launchpad, it disappeared into the clouds. The announcer then expressed surprise that as pictures showed the rocket rising up through the atmosphere. He seemed not to be aware that he was watching an animation. These guys don't have a lot of experience with this. But they are getting it pretty fast.

It has always seemed to me that China had opted to borrow heavily from the Russians in their space technology. But when I mentioned this to a friend of mine who is a research scientist involved with the space program, he denied it. This morning, there was an interesting discussion on Dialogue with a professor from the University of Arizona. He seemed to think that China's approach was eclectic--borrowing the best from both the American and Russian space programs. There was some discussion about China's decision not to go with the idea of a reusable vehicle like the American space shuttle. The first issue mentioned in that regard is cost. But I think there are other reasons. The space shuttle has not turned out to be such a good idea. I don't really fault the Americans for trying it--it was a worthy experiment in many ways, but it hasn't worked out very well, and I think it is time to phase it out.

The big issue to watch is whether China will enter into cooperation with other nations at any level, or determine to go it alone all the way through. At any rate, expect to see China put a man on the moon before too many years.