China Succeeds in First Space Docking by 2 Spaceships | Hacker News Reader

China Succeeds in First Space Docking by 2 Spaceships

space.com

54 pointssasvari25 comments

The link title is ambiguous. It's the first time that China has docked two crafts in orbit. Good for them.

The first time that two spacecraft have ever docked in orbit was, I believe, the Gemini/Soyuz joint missions in the middle of the previous century.

You're thinking of Appollo-Soyuz, which happened in the 70's. the first space docking was in the Gemini program, Gemini 8, which docked to an american Agena upperstage.

The Chinese vehicles in the article were robotic. The electronics did the docking, not a pilot. That seems like a reasonable accomplishment, even if somebody in "The West" has done it before.

"The Chinese vehicles in the article were robotic. The electronics did the docking, not a pilot."

The Kosmos 186 and Kosmos 188 docking, achieved by the USSR in 1967, was unmanned and completely automated.

This quote made me laugh:

"We can never count on other countries to sell their mature technologies to us, so we have to rely on our own, ..."

Especially considering the large amount of hacking of western technology companies and government that is originating from Chinese military universities.

It's really great to see China pursuing their space program so vigorously.

Hopefully it will continue like this and pull more technical innovation into China like it did for both Russia and the U.S.

These photos seriously look more like underwater photos than space photos. That supposed space-walk China had clearly showed bubbles coming from the spacesuits. ... Bubbles. In Space. Mhm...

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2008/10/08/di...

Very good

This may seem like sarcasm but in reality the USA funded this, albeit indirectly, no?

Insane irony considering what has happened to NASA.

Funded it? Are you talking about the US's financial relationships with China? That's just trade. If you're implying espionage, that's a bit of a stretch, at least for the US; the carrier rocket used is rather similar to a Soviet/Russian Proton, though scaled down, while the orbiters are Soyuz-like. The US hasn't produced a large hydrazine rocket in decades, and has never produced a Soyuz-like orbiter, so espionage there is improbable.

How so?

Unless you're making a talking-head argument about China owning the US treasury, the only way the US "funded" this is via the publicly available information on NASA's work, in which case you have to mention the Soviet Union/Russia, too.

I think he's referring to China's stealing of every piece of foreign technology that they can get their hands on.

China's current space technology is far more similar to Soviet and Russian work than American work.

They don't need to steal the tech. They can just send their students to our universities and we'll teach it to them. I think that's how they developed their nuclear technology - they just went to MIT and we showed them how it was done.

Care to provide relevant citations for space technology that china stole?

Or is this just belligerent racism?

I was saying that I think that's what the parent is talking about.

There have been many examples of cloned tech in China's recent history, though, so I'm not sure where your outrage is coming from. I didn't say anything about Chinese people as a race.

Well, they must have gotten the idea of rockets from somewhere, for starters (/sarcasm)

Why would they not steal technology? It's profitable. It's good for the PRC elite, it's good for the chinese people. The only losers --and in the space exploration game I'm not sure there are any-- are foreign IP owners or states.

Ah, the other version of China-as-a-bogeyman -- "technology" being "stolen".

Hint: The only reason China gets special attention is it's not a member of Club West. Funny how quickly stories of industrial espionage by NATO members drops out of the media -- if it ever appears in the first place.

Fellow named von Braun in the back of the room seems agitated, like he wants to say something but can't talk himself into making a scene.

US indirectly funds everything

...with other people's money/sweat

Heard they're parking this near the ISS so they can get Chinese carry-out.

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