"Everyone who wants an in-flight movie, raise your hands"
Posted on 09/26/2008 1:05:05 PM PDT by DCBurgess58
Are these pilots, or just spam in a can?
On Sept 25th 2008, China launched a Shenzhou VII spacecraft starting their third manned space mission. The three man crew of "taikonauts" (that's Chinaspeak for astronauts) includes mission Commander Zhai Zhigang, Liu Boming and Jing Haipeng. All three men are 42 years old and all are pilots from the People's Liberation Army Air Force. Commander Zhigang will perform an EVA during the mission, becoming the first Chinese taikonaut to do a spacewalk. It's too bad they don't have Laika the Russian space dog with them. If they did, they could take Laika out for a spacewalk and it would probably be the highlight of their mission.
Take a good look at the "taikonauts" seating area? It's a nice wide open space, with plenty of leg room. That's much nicer seating then us "plebs" get while riding coach class in a commercial airliner. Meanwhile our poor American astronauts lose all that comfy legroom because we stuff their seating area with all those pesky controls. Hang on a sec, it appears that we've fallen behind the Chinese in space technology. The Chinese have managed to miniturize the controls to the point where they are totally invisible. At the beginning of our own American space program, the scientists and government officials cynically looked at "manned" space missions as a public relations excersize. Putting men in space was something to be done so that additionl funding for the space program could be secured, besides, the test pilots selected as astronauts were thought of as "loose cannons". The image of a test pilot was that of an egotistical, hard-drinking, rule-breaking, danger junkie. Unfortunatly for the bureaucrats, the Mercury astronauts were not willing to be "spam in a can", riding along like so much baggage on a PR exercise. The astronauts demanded, and eventually got, controls put into the space capsule, which would allow them to be an active part of the mission. As time moved on, it became inconceivable to think of a space mission without the failsafe of human control as a back-up. One only has to think of the Apollo 13 mission, where the crew had to resort to manual control of virtually the entire spacecraft's systems, in order to survive an aborted mission in a damaged spacecraft and return safely to Earth. In America the astronauts were able to become an active part of the mission, because we have the power to exert pressure on our government. In the Chinese communist system all things flow outward from the government, you get what you get. These Chinese pilots were useful as pilots when seated in a fighter jet for the People's Liberation Army Air Force. Now they appear to be useful as "spam in a can", participating in a public relations exercise for the glory of the Chinese communist government. Will light refreshments be served before or after the in-flight movie?
The term “Spam in a can” just makes me wonder how much melamine they contain.
Spam or not, it is an impressive feat to send someone into space and orbit the Earth.
I agree but I would not like to be one of those someones. I can think of nothing worse than sitting in a capsule, waiting to die because there was a critical control system failure.
Why do I keep reading “Chinese taikonauts” as “Chinese takeout”? Maybe that’s what the space walk is for?
Colonel, USAFR
“Husan, we have a probrem.”
I am not making this up and I think it may have been in the Washington Times but I have not had the time today to find the article, or where (Times or Internet) it was printed.
That's because after they launch a Chinese rocket, 30 minutes later they want to launch another one.
-PJ
Sorry, but the controls are in the part of the spacecraft where the camera is placed; that's why you can't see them. The Shenzhou is like a Soyuz; there's an "orbital module" (living space, experiments, provisions, etc.) and a "command module" (flight controls, where the crew is seated during liftoff and reentry). The orbital module is jettisoned at the end of the mission and only the command module lands.
You're looking from the hatchway between the orbital and command modules, into the orbital module. (The hatch itself is the round object secured with a rope.)
Did they paint "No MSG" on the side of the module?
-PJ
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2090568/posts
FAKETASTIC: China Launch Success Hits Web Hours Before Actual Blast-Off
Wouldn’t it be ironic if they survived the spacewalk, but were killed by the milk on board?
LOL, you're bad. Naughty Freeper!
Hmmmmm, so you're saying that they are seated in the living space? Where are their beds?, experiment areas, provisions? Looks pretty much like they are seated where they will be during liftoff and reentry
Not seeing a lot of controls where they are seated
Article in the paper with that photo said it is in the training simulator.
Sorry, but the controls are in the part of the spacecraft where the camera is placed; that's why you can't see them.
This looks to me like a picture on the ground before they close the hatch. Isn't that yellowish thing at the bottom of the picture the hatch folded into the spacecraft?
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