Chinese space walk before October?

by | Sep 2, 2008 | China | 0 comments

While internet reports are qouting Chinese newspapers saying that China’s three-man Shenzhou VII spacecraft could be launched in the next two weeks the Chinese government’s Xinhua news agency actually reported as long ago as March that the spacewalk mission could take place in “late September”

As well as being only one of three nations with an independent human spaceflight capability, China, if the mission is successful, will become the third nation capable of undertaking its own extra-vehicular activities

As any regular readers of this blog will know I have been highly sceptical of a Chinese spacewalk this year since my visit in April 2007 to the country’s astronaut training centre in Beijing

While I was there they seemed ill prepared for a spacewalk mission and the presentations about EVA training suggested they were a long way from being able to carry it out

When I had asked the China National Space Administration’s vice-administrator Luo Ge at the US Space Foundation’s National Space Symposium in Colorado in 2006 about the EVA suit I was cheekily told that it would have the words “made in China” on it

Well, made in China and designed in China are two different things. Now we have seen the suit I think we can guess how the Chinese were able to accelerate their programme to ensure a spacewalk mission in 2008, they bought Orlan suits from Zvezda

And as this story and video of mine shows, the Chinese spacesuits have been looking suspiciously Orlan-like for some time

About Seradata

Seradata produces the renowned Seradata database. Trusted by over 100 of the world’s leading Space organisations, Seradata is a fully queryable database used for market analysis, failure/risk assessment, spectrum analysis and space situational awareness (SSA).

For more information go to https://www.seradata.com/product/

Related Articles

Categories

Archives

Tags

nasaspacexecoreviewsissesaArianespacevideochinaFalcon 9v1.2FT Block 525virgin galacticULAfalcon 9evaRoscosmosspacewalkDGAaviation weekBlue OriginInternational Space StationaresIGTsoyuzRocket LabBeidouawardsStarlinkspaceAirbus DSboeingSatellite broadcastingrussiamoonOneWebISROCargo Return VehiclemarsblogresearchspaceshiptwojaxaorionmarsimpactdelayhyperbolaEutelsatdemocratrocketlunarhypertextobamagoogle lunar prizelaunchVegaSESthales alenia spacetourismbarack obamaconstellationfiguresnorthspaceflightIntelsatnode 2fundedRaymond Lygo2009Lockheed MartinExpress MD-2Elon MuskAtlas Vromess2dassault aviationaviationLucy2008wk2sstlukradiosuborbitaltestmissiledocking portexplorationAriane 5 ECAVirgin OrbitinternetSLSLong March 2D/2ElectronNorthrop GrummanChina Manned Space Engineeringsts-122Ariane 5missile defensenewspapercotsgalileospace tourismflight2010Long March 4CspaceportExpress AMU 1buildspace stationaltairsoyuz 2-1aProton Minternational astronautical congressshuttlespace shuttleAriane 6scaled compositesIntelsat 23European Space AgencyLauncherOneCosmoshanleybudgetrulesnew yorkatvVietnamshenzhoucongressMojaveboldennew shepardLong March 2CInmarsatOrbital ATKcnesiaclunar landerGuiana Space CenterApollolawsUS Air ForceSpace Systems/LoralUK Space AgencyLong March 4BKuaizhou 1AkscILSprotondarpaTalulah RileyElectron KSFalcon 9v1.2 Block 5Vega CNorth KoreaeuSkylonAstriumpicturebaseusaastronautdragonlanderfiveeventTelesatSSLAprilSNC50thinterviewLong MarchSea LaunchfalconWednesdaycustomerlinkatlantissuccessor

Stay Informed with Seradata

Stay informed on the latest news, insights, and more from Seradata by signing up for our newsletter.