

China Succeeds in First Space Docking by 2 Spaceships  - sasvari
http://www.space.com/13477-china-space-docking-success-shenzhou8-tiangong1.html

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winestock
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.

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Roboprog
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.

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Arjuna
_"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.

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yaix
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.

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Volpe
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.

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mugwort13
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...

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randallsquared
[http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2008/10/08/di...](http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2008/10/08/did-
the-chinese-fake-their-space-walk/)

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feilaoda
Very good

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ck2
This may seem like sarcasm but in reality the USA funded this, albeit
indirectly, no?

Insane irony considering what has happened to NASA.

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nknight
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.

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

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

Or is this just belligerent racism?

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ericd
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.

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

