<story><title>China Launches First Crew to Live on New Space Station</title><url>https://www.npr.org/2021/06/17/1007471106/china-launches-first-crew-to-live-on-new-space-station</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Clewza313</author><text>That used to be the case, but is not so much anymore: for example, Reuters filmed the launch today live.  Wenchang spaceport, on China&amp;#x27;s Hawaii-equivalent island of Hainan, which you can even visit visa-free in pre-COVID times, has become a major Cape Canaveral-style space tourism destination with rocket watchers gathering for launch picnics, streaming live, etc.  Today&amp;#x27;s launch was from the other major spaceport at Jiuquan though, which is the middle of nowhere deep in the Gobi Desert.&lt;p&gt;That said, the Chinese space program has deep military roots and every Chinese astronaut to date is an air force pilot, so we&amp;#x27;re not going to see NASA-style transparency anytime soon.</text></item><item><author>ilamont</author><text>It gets a ton of press in the United States. Mars mission, manned launches, and other achievements have been featured prominently by the national broadcasters, the New York Times, and Internet outlets. A few years back there was a movie in which a Chinese space station was featured (based on a Russian template, which figured into the story).&lt;p&gt;What these reports don&amp;#x27;t have are details. And that&amp;#x27;s not surprising, because the Chinese government doesn&amp;#x27;t share many details about its space program, or give any access to media outside of China.</text></item><item><author>Clewza313</author><text>The Chinese space program doesn&amp;#x27;t get a lot of press, but much like the country itself, they&amp;#x27;ve made stunning progress in a short period of time.  It&amp;#x27;s 18 years from their first manned space flight, and here they are successfully building a modular space station, returning samples from the Moon and landing a rover on Mars.  They&amp;#x27;re experimenting with a SpaceX-style reusable rocket, a Mars sample return mission and are planning to land a man on the Moon by the end of the decade, and unlike NASA&amp;#x27;s plans, they appear serious about it too.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Chinese_space_program&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Chinese_space_program&lt;/a&gt; (a mess of current and obsolete programs, but gives some idea of the breadth of their ambitions)&lt;p&gt;Things will get even more interesting next year if India launches their first manned spaceflight as planned.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Gaganyaan&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Gaganyaan&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>samsari</author><text>&amp;gt;That said, the Chinese space program has deep military roots and every Chinese astronaut to date is an air force pilot&lt;p&gt;Is your implication that the American space programme somehow does &lt;i&gt;not&lt;/i&gt; have deep military roots?</text></comment>
<story><title>China Launches First Crew to Live on New Space Station</title><url>https://www.npr.org/2021/06/17/1007471106/china-launches-first-crew-to-live-on-new-space-station</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Clewza313</author><text>That used to be the case, but is not so much anymore: for example, Reuters filmed the launch today live.  Wenchang spaceport, on China&amp;#x27;s Hawaii-equivalent island of Hainan, which you can even visit visa-free in pre-COVID times, has become a major Cape Canaveral-style space tourism destination with rocket watchers gathering for launch picnics, streaming live, etc.  Today&amp;#x27;s launch was from the other major spaceport at Jiuquan though, which is the middle of nowhere deep in the Gobi Desert.&lt;p&gt;That said, the Chinese space program has deep military roots and every Chinese astronaut to date is an air force pilot, so we&amp;#x27;re not going to see NASA-style transparency anytime soon.</text></item><item><author>ilamont</author><text>It gets a ton of press in the United States. Mars mission, manned launches, and other achievements have been featured prominently by the national broadcasters, the New York Times, and Internet outlets. A few years back there was a movie in which a Chinese space station was featured (based on a Russian template, which figured into the story).&lt;p&gt;What these reports don&amp;#x27;t have are details. And that&amp;#x27;s not surprising, because the Chinese government doesn&amp;#x27;t share many details about its space program, or give any access to media outside of China.</text></item><item><author>Clewza313</author><text>The Chinese space program doesn&amp;#x27;t get a lot of press, but much like the country itself, they&amp;#x27;ve made stunning progress in a short period of time.  It&amp;#x27;s 18 years from their first manned space flight, and here they are successfully building a modular space station, returning samples from the Moon and landing a rover on Mars.  They&amp;#x27;re experimenting with a SpaceX-style reusable rocket, a Mars sample return mission and are planning to land a man on the Moon by the end of the decade, and unlike NASA&amp;#x27;s plans, they appear serious about it too.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Chinese_space_program&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Chinese_space_program&lt;/a&gt; (a mess of current and obsolete programs, but gives some idea of the breadth of their ambitions)&lt;p&gt;Things will get even more interesting next year if India launches their first manned spaceflight as planned.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Gaganyaan&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Gaganyaan&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>triceratops</author><text>&amp;gt; every Chinese astronaut to date is an air force pilot&lt;p&gt;IIRC most early American astronauts were also military aviators - either air force or navy.</text></comment>