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China Cities' Great Progress' In Manned Space Program By Daniel Southerland
(c) 1986, The Washington Post
PEKING - China has made "great progress" in developing a manned space
program and the day it launches a man in space for the first time is "not
far off," an official newspaper said Sunday.
The overseas edition of the People's Daily, the leading Communist Party
newspaper, said China has "already begun the work of choosing its first
team of astronauts." Although it gave few details, the article made it
sound as though China is preparing to launch its first men into space much
sooner than many foreign observers had thought possible. "We have already
succeeded in producing life-support systems and in solving the problems of
controlling gas composition and pressure in the cabin and the level of heat
and humidity," the report said. The report, published Sunday, said the
Chinese have developed the largest centrifuge of its kind in Asia and
Europe to simulate cabin conditions created by the launching of a spaceship.
"The day when a Chinese goes roaming through space is not far off," the
report said.
On June 5 of this year, Sun Jiadong, vice minister of astronautics,
told reporters that China would put a man into space but that such a
program "must be worked out gradually in keeping with our needs and
capabilities." A foreign observer who has followed the Chinese space
program said it could still be a few years before China puts a man into
orbit. The People's Daily report did not say how many astronauts are being
trained or exactly when they might go into space. The Chinese have appeared
to be working for several years on problems associated with building a
space shuttle. A high-ranking official of China's national defense, science
and technology commission confirmed last May that there had been debate
over the feasibility of deploying a space shuttle.
According to the China Business Review, a magazine published in
Washington, D.C., China has been experimenting for more than 10 years with
the thermal problems associated with spacecraft re-entry. The Chinese also
have been developing space food and space suits for at least seven years,
according to published reports. The first publicity about the astronauts
began to appear in Chinese magazines in 1980. In early 1980, Science Life
magazine, published in Shanghai, described a group of astronauts undergoing
fairly sophisticated training, including use of a high-speed centrifuge and
a simulated spaceship. Trainees were reported to be wearing airtight
spacesuits designed for use on the moon.
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