Free Republic

OMAHA, Neb. — A KETV Crime Stoppers alert provided a very clear and very disturbing video of a violent attack. Two people were attacked by a woman who had a young child with her who was yelling for her to "stop it." The incident happened at the Mega Saver at 144th and Blondo streets just after 5 p.m. on Feb. 16. The suspect came into the store wearing a brown coat. It started innocently enough. She walked up to the counter with a small child by her side and asked for an iPhone charger. "Need an iPhone charger for a...

China is only the third country ever to send a person into space. This week the rising space power is set to reach another milestone, launching its first space lab module, an unmanned prototype for a future space station. China's reach for the stars presents the United States with a choice. America could reach out to cooperate, proposing joint exploration projects, or it could restrict collaboration and perhaps even decide to pursue a space race akin to the 1960s competition against the Soviet Union.

WASHINGTON -- The morning after Barack Obama handed the moon and Mars to China, Jane Feng of Nanjing was standing in the atrium of the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, looking up at the antique rockets and planes. "Excuse me," she said to an Old China Hand who happened to be standing nearby. "Please can you tell me, where is the piece of the moon?" I directed her to a pillar near the front entrance that contains a sliver of stone lifted from the Valley of Taurus-Littrow by the crew of Apollo 17. That was in December 1972, which was...

China might one day explore other planets, Sun Jiadong, chief designer of Chang'e-l, China's first lunar probe, told China Economic Weekly. Sun said the launch of Chang'e 1 was the beginning of China's deep space exploration, and that the developing economy and space technology will pave the way for future study and a possible exploration beyond the moon. "Some developed countries are more advanced in this aspect, such as the US, which has explored all planets, asteroids and comets in our solar system," Sun said.

MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti commentator Alexander Peslyak) - The launch of a Russian Phobos Grunt probe to Mars on October 16 has been delayed until 2011. The delay also affects China's first mission to Mars. The 240-pound Chinese Yinghou-1 spacecraft was to be mounted atop the Russian spacecraft for transport to the Martian orbit, where it was to be released before the Russian spacecraft landed on Phobos.

The Chinese space programme, run by the military, has broken ground on a new space centre in southern China from which it will launch a new generation of rockets.

Everybody has a chip on their shoulder about something—many people have a whole bag of chips (or should that be a circuit board of chips?) I certainly have several, including people who won’t stand on the right and walk on the left on Washington Metro escalators (tourists!), drivers who don’t use turn signals, and just about any popular media article about the Chinese space program. The reason that media reports on China’s space program bug me is that they often seem to be out of phase with what is already known based upon Chinese reports and statements. That is still...

BEIJING (AP) – The United States is looking to collaborate with China on civilian space projects but will not pursue broad engagement with the military-dominated Chinese space program, NASA's chief administrator said Monday. Michael Griffin, who arrived in Beijing on Saturday, is the highest-ranking NASA official to visit China. His trip – which he called “a first date” – represents a turnaround for Washington, which has largely shunned contacts with the secretive Chinese space program, and follows personal lobbying by China's president for the exchanges.