Chinese launch first woman astronaut

[Garrison]

The first manned flight to the Tiangong space station includes China's first woman astronaut:

China launches space mission with first woman astronaut

It's an achievement but with this pace of launches I can't see them getting a manned flight beyond LEO this decade.

[KaiYeves]

Congrats to Ms. Liu!

[ravens_cry]

Congratulations indeed. The planned rendezvous and docking especially holds considerable interest.

[Nicolas]

This flight is just a benchmark test in intelligibility of space communication. Two astronauts on board are called Liu Wang and Liu Yang. And the backup female astronaut for Lui Yang had Wang as her first name.

[Warringer]

This flight is just a benchmark test in intelligibility of space communication. Two astronauts on board are called Liu Wang and Liu Yang. And the backup female astronaut for Lui Yang had Wang as her first name.

I guess those names are the 'Smith' and 'Miller' of China.

Anyway, congratulations to the Chinese and hopefully the mission will not have any problems. A bit of real competition is needed at the moment to get NASA and ESA off their rear ends.

[Jens]

This flight is just a benchmark test in intelligibility of space communication. Two astronauts on board are called Liu Wang and Liu Yang. And the backup female astronaut for Lui Yang had Wang as her first name.

I wonder if it's correct to say that Wang is her "first name." Wang would be her family name, which in English we usually call the "last name." It's just that in China, the family name is placed before the given name. And just as a point of interest, Wang is the most common family name in the world.

[Jens]

I wonder if it's correct to say that Wang is her "first name." Wang would be her family name, which in English we usually call the "last name." It's just that in China, the family name is placed before the given name. And just as a point of interest, Wang is the most common family name in the world.

I may have to correct my own post. I think that Liu may be the family name of the two astronauts. It's confusing, because Liu, Yang, and Wang are all possible family names!

[mutleyeng]

It's an achievement but with this pace of launches I can't see them getting a manned flight beyond LEO this decade.

I may be wrong, but i didnt think they planned on getting manned flight beyond LEO within the decade.
Lunar robotic sample return by 2020...manned by mid 20s was the approx time line i read.
Thats still optimistic of course. Its a big hill to climb, but good luck to em. I hope ESA, Roscosmos and the chinese space agency can establish a good working relationship.
I expect some big science from them in the coming years. They collectively should be a match for the NASA budget in a few yrs

[Nicolas]

I may have to correct my own post. I think that Liu may be the family name of the two astronauts. It's confusing, because Liu, Yang, and Wang are all possible family names!

In any case, If one person is called Liu Wang, and the other is called Wang Something in the same article, we can assume that in one case it's the first name and in the other case the last name, though not sure about the order.

[Doodler]

Official term is "taikonaut" for Chinese space travellers. Good on'em for a successful launch, though.

[Jens]

Official term is "taikonaut" for Chinese space travellers. Good on'em for a successful launch, though.

They seem to use the term "astronaut." See here.

[Nicolas]

The "similar threads" list is hilarious.

[publiusr]

Some more here
http://up-ship.com/blog/?p=15180
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2012/...th-tiangong-1/

"In Chinese itself, however, the term yuhangyuan (宇航員 yǔháng yuán) ("space navigator") has long been used and refers to astronauts and cosmonauts." From: http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Taikonaut

[SolusLupus]

This flight is just a benchmark test in intelligibility of space communication. Two astronauts on board are called Liu Wang and Liu Yang. And the backup female astronaut for Lui Yang had Wang as her first name.

Well, that's a funny point, but how are they pronounced? There's four different pronunciations for every syllable in Chinese language. Trust me, I know, learning Chinese was fun that way. A different pronunciation makes a whole different word.

This is why any real translation of Chinese has a pronunciation key over the syllables. It's also why those that speak Chinese are very very sensitive to pronunciation/sounds of words.

[Trebuchet]

Am I the only one who found this:

"We will obey orders, listen to directions and be calm; and co-ordinate together to successfully complete China's first manned rendezvous and docking mission," said Commander Jing Haipeng.

just a little bit creepy?

[MikeMcc]

Ok,there's lots of previous flights from other countries for them to have based the technology and techniques on, but they have certainly shown a lot of capability in very few flights. I wouldn't dismiss them too readily, their rate of advance is impressive.

[Nicolas]

Am I the only one who found this:

just a little bit creepy?

I think it's a cultural thing. The "obey orders, listen to directions and be calm" can be seen as virtues of co-operation and working under stress just like an American might say they "got the best heads of this wonderful nation together to make this work, so we'll work hard and use our training to make this mission a succes for our country".

[Ara Pacis]

I think it's a cultural thing. The "obey orders, listen to directions and be calm" can be seen as virtues of co-operation and working under stress just like an American might say they "got the best heads of this wonderful nation together to make this work, so we'll work hard and use our training to make this mission a succes for our country".

Or was something lost in translation?

[Nicolas]

That would be hard for me to answer as I don't have the source, nor would I be able to read a word of it.

[mutleyeng]

I remember Lawrence Krauss talking about the numbers of chinese students he is now seeing.
He did say that while they were extremely capable, the one thing holding them back, to his mind, was that they were just a little bit too respectful of people like him.
I think he was suggesting their culture of respect of authority figures is a negative factor in sciences.
I dont know if he is right about that. I wonder how the chinese culture of respect is so different to that of the japanese?
Its just his view i guess.

[aquitaine]

I remember Lawrence Krauss talking about the numbers of chinese students he is now seeing.
He did say that while they were extremely capable, the one thing holding them back, to his mind, was that they were just a little bit too respectful of people like him.
I think he was suggesting their culture of respect of authority figures is a negative factor in sciences.
I dont know if he is right about that. I wonder how the chinese culture of respect is so different to that of the japanese?
Its just his view i guess.

It's 100% accurate. Everyone is born with great potential, but in many parts of the world suppression of the individual and independent thinking for the sake of "harmony" is normal. To answer your question, the Japanese based their culture entirely on that of the Chinese. So the differences are largely superficial.

EDIT: I'll also point out that one of the areas this affects them is that they frequently will completely miss new industries (those industries that came about after they started their course of development). One of the areas where this is appearent is with private spaceflight. How many companies like SpaceX are there in China or Japan?

[Polyrealastic Observer]

One thing I found interesting is how sing-songy their communications are. Whereas Western comm (during critical phases anyway) is very dry, and business-like (excluding Pete Conrad's exaltations), the launch commentary sounded more like an exciting football game, than a golf match.

[potoole]

Okay.[/COLOR]

Post Edit by Admin: Please do not use colored fonts. We use those to distinguish moderator action posts (color) from moderators just posting as members (b&w).

[Nicolas]

Is someone trying to launch his post count?

Anyway. The mission already successfully tried some automatic coupling manoeuvres, and now they also succeeded in a manual coupling to their space station prototype, which is a first for them. The mission appears to be going well.

[Garrison]

One thing I found interesting is how sing-songy their communications are. Whereas Western comm (during critical phases anyway) is very dry, and business-like (excluding Pete Conrad's exaltations), the launch commentary sounded more like an exciting football game, than a golf match.

Actually I used to work for a Taiwanese boss, his calls to head office often sounded quite dramatic but it was just the same old stuff managers always talk about.

As for the mission everything seems to be going well and they are moving things along. I suppose it's just wishful thinking that the US Congress might feel motivated to act and boost NASA MSF funding by this Chinese success?

[RickLewis]

Re-igniting the space race might be good for the budgets of national space agencies, but it would be nice to think that we are now moving beyond the need for that, and that the next wave of competition in space travel will be commercial.

[Jens]

To answer your question, the Japanese based their culture entirely on that of the Chinese. So the differences are largely superficial.

I don't really know where to start. I don't see how you get the idea that Japanese culture is entirely based on the Chinese. It's like saying that French culture is entirely based on Greece. There are clearly influences, actually many influences that came from India to China to Japan as well, but the cultures are not really as close as you might think. The languages are extremely different, much different than any European languages are to one another, family structures are different, ideas on rulership are different, etc., etc. It's true that Japan imported writing and the bureaucratic system from China, as well as part of its religion (though from India of course). But in Japan it was somehow amalgamated with the local folk religion. But in any case, to say "entirely" is a wild exaggeration.

With regard to the second sentence I suppose you can argue from a structuralist point of view that all differences between human societies are largely superficial. But the differences between Japan and China are relatively much, much larger than those between, say the UK and France.

[Jens]

Actually I used to work for a Taiwanese boss, his calls to head office often sounded quite dramatic but it was just the same old stuff managers always talk about.

I've noticed that phenomenon as well. Often when I hear Chinese people talking together it seems like they're arguing, and then from the context it is clear that they are not. I'm not sure but it may be that because Chinese uses tones, we tend to interpret the ups and downs in tones as indicating emotion, whereas in Chinese they are phonetic.

[JoshuaJericho]

I wonder if it's correct to say that Wang is her "first name." Wang would be her family name, which in English we usually call the "last name." It's just that in China, the family name is placed before the given name. And just as a point of interest, Wang is the most common family name in the world.

You are correct there Jens.

[publiusr]

I remember Lawrence Krauss talking about the numbers of chinese students he is now seeing.
He did say that while they were extremely capable, the one thing holding them back, to his mind, was that they were just a little bit too respectful of people like him.
I think he was suggesting their culture of respect of authority figures is a negative factor in sciences.

I don't know that I would agree with that. Take the Chinese response to SARS as described here: http://www.discovermagazine.com/2012...ter-ian-lipkin

Some quotes: "The Chinese consulate invited me to a magnificent banquet at an East Side Chinese restaurant in New York. Halfway through the meal they said to me, we need you to go to Beijing tonight. People were dying there...Chen Zhu, now China’s minister of health, was waiting at the airport with a red carpet. The streets were deserted. Tiananmen Square was empty. The Forbidden City was empty. The next morning we went to the Great Hall, and I’m told I am there to design their SARS program. There were 250 people waiting to hear what I wanted them to do. When I went back to see Chen Zhu, he was in a hospital with an unexplained liver problem. At the nursing station they didn’t even have soap. The first thing I did was sit down with him, and I said, you must do two things for me. There can be no spitting on the sidewalks because this spreads all these germs. And doctors and nurses coming to see you must wash their hands. By the time I left his room half an hour later, there was a prohibition against spitting on sidewalks and there was soap and water and paper towels in hospitals."

Now compare that to how doctors and scientists are treated here, what with the anti-vaccine nuts. People argue with experts all over the blogosphere and get away with all kinds of crap.