is Project 921-I really over?
- Thread starter MIGleader
- Start date
nah, i think it's over, sending women can be integrated into the phase 2 of the plan. and china might send a woman into space in shenzhou-7, along with the spacewalk stuff. it's really not necessary (not worth the money as well) to launch a rocket just to show that china has women astronaunts.
Stage 1: To launch two unmanned spaceflight missions and a manned mission before 2002, and to finalise the design of manned spacecraft and its associated systems
Stage 2: To grasp the space docking technique by 2007, and to launch a temporarily man-tended 8-tonne class “Space Laboratory†based on the design of the manned spacecraft
Stage 3: To build a 20-tonne class permanent space station
It took that 13 years just to complete the first phase. Anyone think the latter two might just be that long.
Stage 2: To grasp the space docking technique by 2007, and to launch a temporarily man-tended 8-tonne class “Space Laboratory†based on the design of the manned spacecraft
Stage 3: To build a 20-tonne class permanent space station
It took that 13 years just to complete the first phase. Anyone think the latter two might just be that long.
exactly how fast the space programme goes not only depends on the technological progress and economic growth, but also the country's determination and allocation of resources. You simply cannot put the space programme always at the very top priority.
The three-step development plan was made when the manned space programme began in the late 1980s. I can feel that there has been change of tune in the past few years. While the second stage (space docking and walking, space lab) will go ahread in the next decade, the third stage which will involve building a permanent 20t space station may never come true. This is mainly because the two previous space stations Mir and ISS have not been very successful, and their effectiveness is now being questioned.
By the time the second stage is completed, which is sometime around 2015, the trend in space exploration may change dramatically. The direction of the Chinese manned space programme may well change too to suit these new development.
The three-step development plan was made when the manned space programme began in the late 1980s. I can feel that there has been change of tune in the past few years. While the second stage (space docking and walking, space lab) will go ahread in the next decade, the third stage which will involve building a permanent 20t space station may never come true. This is mainly because the two previous space stations Mir and ISS have not been very successful, and their effectiveness is now being questioned.
By the time the second stage is completed, which is sometime around 2015, the trend in space exploration may change dramatically. The direction of the Chinese manned space programme may well change too to suit these new development.
Dongfeng said:
Mir not successful? Why that? The programme proved Soviet industrial durability (the 5 year program lasted 14) and many of the foreign cosmonauts that had the privilege to live in Mir were blazed by the facilities mir had to offer (considering Russia and Soviet Union was considered decades behind in terms of technology).
Now the ISS is still on progress and hasn't reached it's full spectrum yet. The first programs, the US SkyLab and the Soviet Salyout orbital capsules were considered as failures.
If you do consider the financial burden they constitute, yes the price is heavy and often unnecessary but nvertheless it is the price to pay for Human Curiousity.