

China conducts first manual space docking - allenwlee
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia/2012/06/2012624513097350.html

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stupandaus
The title is a little bit ambiguous, so here's a clarification. This is
China's first manual space docking, not the first one ever performed. The US
first accomplished this in 1966. Nevertheless, it is a big stepping stone for
the Chinese space program.

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rysteaa
Was in Russia a few years ago, staying in a high tech hub city that was built
to work with the space station - heard a story about the Russian Space agency
hiring a Chinese mathematics genius - he couldn't speak a word of Russian and
had to go everywhere with a translator. Because of this the Russian scientists
were a little less diligent with what they said about him, and what they left
lying around. A couple of months later he had disappeared, turns out he had
studied in St. Petersberg and spoke fluent Russian - at that point the Chinese
space program made a huge jump forwards, and a few years later had launched
their first manned capsule.

