According to this story, the Chinese are going to launch a space station. They don’t have a date, though:

China will launch Shenzhou VII with three astronauts in September 2008, after the Beijing Olympic Games…

After the launch of Shenzhou VII, a space station with 20 tons will be built…

Why wait until after the Olympics? What does this have to do with anything? Unless, of course, the purpose of the program is primarily for national prestige, as opposed to actually accomplishing something that’s important.

And “after the launch of Shenzhou VII” could be anywhere from October, 2008 (unlikely) until…the end of time. But we’d better hurry–we’re in a race!

According to this story, the Chinese are going to launch a space station. They don’t have a date, though:

China will launch Shenzhou VII with three astronauts in September 2008, after the Beijing Olympic Games…

After the launch of Shenzhou VII, a space station with 20 tons will be built…

Why wait until after the Olympics? What does this have to do with anything? Unless, of course, the purpose of the program is primarily for national prestige, as opposed to actually accomplishing something that’s important.

And “after the launch of Shenzhou VII” could be anywhere from October, 2008 (unlikely) until…the end of time. But we’d better hurry–we’re in a race!

Mojave seems to be recovering from the construction of the Highway 58 bypass:

In four years, Mojave Airport has gone from an under-utilized airport and civilian flight test facility to a spaceport with a worldwide reputation as a “Silicon Valley” for the emerging commercial space industry.

New companies are arriving and established tenants are seeing their contracts and payrolls grow.

Companies such as Scaled Composites – which won international acclaim for SpaceShipOne, the first privately funded, manned space program – and XCOR Aerospace are among the cutting-edge aerospace firms outgrowing their existing facilities as they add employees and projects.

Here’s a gorgeous picture of Tuesday’s launch taken from the wildlife preserve. High technology set against a foreground of nature.

Keith Cowing has a roundup.

I don’t necessarily agree with all (or even any) of them, but it’s useful to see what the space-interested community has to say.

The power of bird droppings.

Obviously, these NASA engineers have never owned a car that they had to keep outside of the garage or carport.

The folks on site have found no damage to the orbiter.

There has been so much undue hysteria building up to this launch, that it’s amazing that they’ve ever flown it at all.

The issue isn’t safety, or risk of loss of vehicle of mission. The simple fact is that it costs too damn much.

It’s a little late for me to mention, but Thomas James has some space-related memories of the nation’s 200th birthday. He, too, was part of a generation cheated by the porkmeisters.

We’re going to head up north and see what we can see. Primary location criterion will be clear skies to the north-northeast, up the coast, as far north as we can get before launch time.

[Update about 4 PM]

Just got back. We watched it from Hutchinson Island, on the beach. There was one cloud that obscured part of the ascent, but we saw most of it until SRB burnout. Maybe a pic later, but I’ve got to go get ribs on the grill.

Florida Today has a feature to give you launch status updates by cell phone, for those of you headed for the beaches or barbecues.

I’d bet that they’re going to launch today–no technical issues (no ice formed where the foam came off) and the forecast is about as good as it gets. Unfortunately, we can’t drive all the way up and back from Boca, and also have the people over for the planned barbecue and fireworks tonight (at least not easily, with high probability of success). We might head up north of Jupiter or Hobe Sound, though, where the coast turns to the northwest to give a view of the Cape from the south on a barrier island. That would only take an hour each way, and be relatively uncrowded. We wouldn’t hear or feel the launch, but we’d see it. Still making plans.