Who knows?
Judging by this, we can’t rely on anything they tell us about their progress.
China’s state news agency published a despatch from the country’s three latest astronauts describing their first night in space before they had even left Earth.
Including a fauxtograph.
We didn’t fake the moon landings, but given this, it wouldn’t surprise me if the Chinese attempt it.
Why stop at a moon landing? They might as well go interstellar. I just read that the Chinese are building the EM Drive (the spacedrive that New Scientist failed to properly evaulate before they put it on their cover last year).
“Chinese Say They’re Building ‘Impossible’ Space Drive”
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/09/chinese-buildin.html
This surely is a good sign for their no-doubt-soon manned lunar missions. They’ll be easier to perform than expected. Maybe we could even rent out the NASA studios for some hard currency.
I wonder how realistic a fake moon landing would be. Would they at least send a Shenzhou capsule into lunar orbit, or would they not care that we saw nothing, or perhaps claim to have advanced stealth technology?
I think they wouldn’t fake it — it would just be too embarrassing. These sort of early news releases (which are not unlike the way newspapers pre-write obits) are embarrassing enough.
Heh. It’s embarrassing, but I think all that happened here is that they had several template stories ready to go and someone hit post by accident. They should just consider themselves lucky they didn’t accidentally post the “Rocket Explodes, Everyone Dies” template.
They should just consider themselves lucky they didn’t accidentally post the “Rocket Explodes, Everyone Dies” template.
That would probably be rewarded with some serious prison time.
Funniest thing I’ve read all day, Brock. And no doubt true.
The first Chinese spacewalk happened behind a keyboard in a
XinhuaPropaganda Ministry office, talk about home goal.I feel sorry for anyone involved with Chinese space activities who does anything beyond writing fantasy and creating clouds of space debris.
Kind of like McCain running an ad today that he’d won the debate – before debate even happened..?
“I’d never believed much of what was printed in the old newspapers, and when the Vietnam debacle, Black Militancy, and Yippiedom were at their heights, I believed even less, but it was not until I saw that headline that I understood the difference between a communications media that is bossed, cajoled, intimidated, and wooed by its government, and one that is, quite simply, an extension of the government itself.”
— Oliver Lange, Vandenberg
> Kind of like McCain running an ad today that he’d won the debate – before debate even happened..?
Is space cynic suggesting that McCain is a news organization? In what universe has any candidate run an ad saying anything other than “I won the debate”?
Why is everyone acting as if Lewis Lapham never existed — or was a Chinese? It’s one measely premature article, and everyone already talks about faked moon landings.
Is space cynic suggesting that McCain is a news organization? In what universe has any candidate run an ad saying anything other than “I won the debate”?
No – i’m suggesting that it was laughable for them to be claiming victory before the debate even happened. Remember “Dewey Wins!” ?
Maybe that was before your time – but not before John’s 🙂
First american spacewalk : july 1965
Fisrt ever manned moon landing: july 1969
Amazing what can be accomplished in just four short years..
“Dewey Defeats Truman” was printed after the election; it was inaccurate due to delays in the Trib’s compositional and printing processes. News releases are routinely composed in advance of the events they report. The mistake is in sending them out early. Also claiming victory in a contest where there is no accepted method of quantifying it.
To this day, I prefer the suggestion of my high school debate coach after seeing the Ford/Carter “debate” in ’76: turn a panel of high school debaters loose on the candidates. They’d be torn apart, of course (and I don’t mean the high-schoolers).
Amazing what can be accomplished in just four short years.
Especially when you have an essentially unlimited budget. That’s a luxury that neither we nor the Chinese can any longer afford.
US definitely cant afford extravagant space program right now, but i wouldnt be too sure on how much China can afford to spend on space. They certainly have started slow and relatively small, but their budgets could be boosted by their successes. I mean there could be a feedback loop with their national pride.
Also, by making a couple saner choices than other lunar programs made in their time ( by NOT building a big booster for example ) they could, in theory, accomplish far more with far less in the long run.
…they could, in theory, accomplish far more with far less in the long run.
They could, in theory, but there is zero evidence to date that they’re doing so. Avoiding big boosters (which they seem to be doing, so far) is a necessary, but not sufficient condition to making the program affordable.
> No – i’m suggesting that it was laughable for them to be claiming victory before the debate even happened.
They showed the same sort of canned release that Obama’s staff had prepared.
Feel free to argue that Obama’s staff prepared a “we lost” release in advance or waited until afterwards to prepare their release.
> Remember “Dewey Wins!” ?
Yes, it was by a news organization. Neither McCain nor Obama are running a news organization.