AFTER weeks of speculation and unprecedented security, on October 16, China finally sent its first astronaut into space. This made the Chinese, a community of more than a billion humans only the third country in the world to possess the ability to send its man into space and to bring him back after a successful journey outside Earth. The other two are of course the US and the former USSR (now Russia).
Though the race to send the first human into space is long over but the excitement the surrounding China’s launch had the whole world buzzing. The man in the center of attraction was Yang Liwei, China’s first taikonaut, or as the official media said, Yuhangyuan. But if you want to know more about the man and his country’s efforts to become a major space power, then the special http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2003/china.space/ on CNN’s web site is place to click.
Probably the best link review and also follow all that has so far taken place, the site has among numerous other things, Yang Liwei’s profile and a timeline of China’s space programme which should help you get a little background on the events that took place this October. There is even a space quiz and seven videos that are here for anyone with a good net connection (preferably of those broadband ones). Photo galleries and a satellite image of the Jiuquan launch site from where Liwei blasted into space and onto world headlines are among the numerous links here. However, the best thing about the site are the news reports that are constantly being updated with the latest one being that the Chinese space hero is missing from the public eye and what’s more on China’s space exploration menu are here.
Of course the other major news organization, the BBC wasn’t far behind. But they weren’t as organized as their CNN counterparts. Still, at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/ 3194892.stm, BBC News offers good information. There are pictures of Liwei’s spacemobile, the Shenzhou space craft, and a map of the flight plan, especially that of the reentry. Pictures, video clips and related web sites (though I got a 403 Forbidden from that link of the Chinese Space Academy) are here for the keen surfer. One has to search for the information here which may keep things a little exciting!
Another informative source for following Yang Liwei’s groundbreaking adventure was Space.com http://www.space.com/. As the name suggests, it has loads of information on everything related to space. And among its archives, it has a little picture how of China’s giant leap into space. However, its search option takes you to results generated by Google, which isn’t all the bad either. Still, if you don’t like the results here, then you can click your way to SpaceDaily http://www.spacedaily.com/. A good alternative to other portals, it has different search results and talks in some detail about China’s future space plans. Like, having a Chinese on the Moon and inside a Chinese built spacestation.
Like we all know, taikonaut Yang wasn’t the first man in space. In fact the great space race between the US and the former USSR took place and got over way back in the 1950s and the 60s. And chronicling the events of those two decades, is the site The Space Race http://www.astrocentral.co.uk/race.html. Sporting ten pages with accounts of the space race combined with pictures and audio, the site starts from the early years of space exploration, from the launch of Sputnik to the radio crackled message The Eagle has Landed. This address chronicles the endeavours of man to reach out of this world. A rather unique link here is that of the Apollo hoax conspiracies. Many believe that the famed Moon landings of the Apollo missions were all hoaxes, faked and that man never really set his foot on the lunar surface. And this is the point that the site tries to prove (or otherwise) to all skeptics of the Apollo hoaxes.
Moon is but one of the crowning achievements of human space exploration. But for that to happen, you first had to have a man in space.
For all eternity, comrade Yuri Gagarin will be remembered as the fist man who broke through the shackles of Earth gravity. Here in this page by the Guardian newspaper http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,4167873-103700,00.html Gagarin’s feat and life are celebrated through a timeline of events. From his birth in 1934 on a collective farm to his untimely death in 1968 outside Moscow, this page not only has information but links as well to numerous events and took place during those years.
Still, much before Gagarin could see the Earth from outer space or Armstrong could take that small step, there were animal astronauts who took those first few risky steps into the unknown. The site, Animal Astronauts http://ham.spa.umn.edu/kris/animals.html is a salute to all those unsung heroes of space travel, those who could not give an interview or appear on public television. From Laika, the first living thing to see a different side of the Earth to Gordo, Able and Baker and Ham, the chimps who helped America prepare for the Moon, the site is interesting information to go through. Though it’s been sometime since this site was updated, the information is nevertheless relevant.
A contribution by the National Space Development Agency of Japan http://spaceboy.nasda.go.jp/note/rekishi/e/rek_e.html is a History of Space Development. Right from the very first thoughts of reaching into space by the 19th century Russian scientist Tsiolkovsky to the transition of the space race of practical cooperation, this site is again a good info link. As a side-menu, it also has link to a history of the Japanese Space Projects.
There are still many more miles to achieve many more hurdles to clear in man’s quest to break free of his dependence on Earth. There is still our red neighbor Mars where man has yet to arrive and then past the asteroid belt into the outer reaches of the Solar System. The aims and objectives are endless. But each objective starts with one small step, like sending a man into space.
AFTER weeks of speculation and unprecedented security, on October 16, China finally sent its first astronaut into space. This made the Chinese, a community of more than a billion humans only the third country in the world to possess the ability to send its man into space and to bring him back after a successful journey outside Earth. The other two are of course the US and the former USSR (now Russia).
