Have they done any updates to the Go Taikonauts site? The JBIS or its sister pub had an article by Phil Clarke on the new Long March rockets awhile back.

I haven't seen upgrades to the Go Taikonauts site

Pigs in outer Space ?
The Shenzhou VI capsule will carry two astronauts on a mission of four to six days, according to earlier state media reports. It is expected to carry several more scientific experiments, although some Western space analysts believe the main mission of China's Shenzhou space flights is military reconnaissance.
China is planning to study the effects of space on sperm, by sending the semen from pedigree pigs into orbit. Scientists believe that microgravity and cosmic rays in outer space will cause genetic change

http://www.thepigsite.com/LatestNews...p;Display=9733
http://www.starstore.com/acatalog/LINK2.jpg
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/life-05zzzd.html
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/issue350/swinetrek1.jpg
pigs in space
It quoted Wang Jinyong, head of the academy's breeding center, as saying more than two million yuan (US$241,000) had been invested in research and equipment for the tests, which would take about two years to assess after the Shenzhou VI mission, scheduled for early October.

China plans to launch a probe called Chang'e No. 1 in late 2006 or early 2007 to the Moon and enter lunar orbit

http://www.spacetoday.org/China/ChinaMoonflight.html

A lunar probe project was officially started in January 2004, and as of the end of 2004 a lunar orbiting exploration was scheduled to be carried out by the end of 2007.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/space/...ina/change.htm

More power to them.

See my contribution on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chang%27e_program

The Long March rockets is not powerful enough for Luna missions (up to 5 tons to GTO now, Long March 3B), so they have to develop a much powerful rocket first.

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They are doing just that--sort of.

Sadly, they are going to be abandoning their hypergolic propellants. I know they are quite dangerous--but it seems a waste to have to build new propellant handling technologies just to replicate what they already have. Their plans almost seem too modular. The largest EELV class rocket will loft 25 tons or so--no better than Angara--its launch pad is finished (Angara, that is). The Chinese version will be made up of smaller strap-ons. They already have small solids and good Long March LVs

I would have put that money into a larger hypergolic rocket like R-56 Monoblock as I suggested on the official website.

Chinese now aim for a spacewalk

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Chinese article:
http://edu.sina.com.cn/en/2005-10-17/192934680.html

- If the Chinese can develop their booster rockets reliably over the next six or seven years, there is no reason why they could not become the second nation in history to send men around the Moon by 2011 or 2012. -

If I were a gibbering paranoid I'd think the Chinese were planning on establishing a moonbase in order to claim the moon as their territory.

(don't worry I'm not that woo-woo)

Russia has announced they will send tourists around Moon as early as 2009.

The next generation of Long March rocket is being developed, called Long March 5, see this Wikipedia article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_March_5_rocket_family

btw, Wikipedia has just been banned from mainland China since October 20.

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I'm glad that the Chinese astronauts returned safe & sound to Earth again. It's a great feat for China - to have had two manned space flights! Lets hope their future plans for more flights to space & to the Moon go equally as well as these manned missions.

Maybe this will be a wake up call to the other space faring nations - or potential ones (like India).

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Well, they USED to believe in a certain hoax called Marxism, but they mostly got over it.

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Or using capitalism to cover it.

See last entry here:
http://www.spacefellowship.com/Forum...-0-asc-15.html

And here:
http://www.spacefellowship.com/Forum...ghlight=#16839

Russia, China Propose Joint Mars, Moon Missions

http://www.spacedaily.com/news/spacetravel-05zzzz.html

great that cooperation

Maybe we will see Angara 100 launch out of China

From http://news.sina.com.cn/c/2005-11-04/01268202782.shtml (Chinese site):

The chief scientist of Chinese lunar exploration project Ouyang Ziyuan said China may launch first manned lunar mission around 2017, and may build a lunar-based telescope/observatory. And build a new seaside space launch center to launch lunar missions since the railway tunnel is wide enough for new Long March 5 rocket, but the first few lunar exploration missions will be launched from Xichang Satellite Launch Center.

From http://tech.sina.com.cn/d/2005-11-03/0806755344.shtml (Chinese site):

Shenzhou 7 will launched with 2 or 3 crew, to perform space walking, Shenzhou 8 and Shenzhou 9 will be unmanned for docking test, but the time interval will be short, maybe only one month or so, Shenzhou 10 will be a manned docking test flight.

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very droll

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Would you rather them narrate the information while initiating a tap dance to the tune of a Moonwalk song?

I still wish they would keep hypergolics for awhile longer, with Glushko's monster RD-270 rocket under a Chinese version of R-56 Monoblock:
I think Long March 5 will use LOX/LH2 with kerolox strap-ons:

More on China here:

Maybe those R-56 plans went with him: http://www.spacedaily.com/news/russia-05zs.html
China's Booster: http://www.spacedaily.com/news/china-05zzzzzzzzzzr.html
China's Brain: http://www.spacedaily.com/news/supercomputer-05j.html
China's Ship: http://www.spacedaily.com/news/china-05zzzzzzzzzzj.html
China's Team http://www.spacedaily.com/news/china-05zzzzzzzzzzn.html
China's Coalition http://www.spacedaily.com/news/spacetravel-05zzzz.html
China's pipeline: http://www.terradaily.com/news/energ...zzzzzzzzb.html

(Vader voice on) Impressive...(Vader voice off)

Russia and China have agreed to launch in 2007 a 10-year space cooperation plan with a focus on joint development of major projects, such as a joint lunar exploration and landing on Mars
http://www.lasalute.net/article45319...o-jointly.html

An unmanned lunar exploration has been named as a strategic goal for Russian-Chinese space cooperation, head of the Russian Federal Space Agency Anatoly Perminov told Russian reporters on Monday.
http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/busine...bu007000c.html

My only beef is that their LM5 is too small.

China Aims to Put Man on Moon by 2020

"Budget permitting, China wants to be able to put a man on the moon and build a space station in 15 years, a space program official said Sunday. "
http://www.space.com/missionlaunches...hina_moon.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_space_station

Base 20 Jiuquan Space Facility
http://www.globalsecurity.org/space/...na/jiuquan.htm

Chinese space links
http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaver...1921/links.htm

Sino-Ukrainian space cooperation
http://en.for-ua.com/news/2006/01/19/134049.html

SPACE 2006: China Plans Keep NASA on Edge
By Irene Mona Klotz, Discovery News
Dec. 20, 2005— "Space 2006" is a series of articles highlighting key space programs and activities in the year ahead.
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs...space_spa.html
Shortly after NASA administrator Mike Griffin announced he wanted to return astronauts to the moon in 2018, representatives with China's space agency came out with news of their own: China was targeting its first moon landing for 2017.
Although not part of the official Chinese space program, the idea of landing Chinese astronauts, or taikonauts, on the moon just 14 years after the country's first human spaceflight is far from impossible. It's been done before, and in even less time.

Chinese language site
http://www.spacechina.com/index.asp?...ew_space\index
to translate their recent news
http://babelfish.altavista.com/

much of it is repeated or broadcast 1st by the 'official' People's Daily or Xinhua

maybe they'll send a Chinese explorer to plant their flag on Mars
http://www.asuwebdevil.com/images/is...china-mars.jpg
http://www.astronautix.com/craft/mars5nm.htm

Great links!

Yup, they sure did, and graduated right into Stalinism.

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Aerospace Expert Calls For Unified Management Of Space Program
http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Ae...e_Program.html
China needs a unified leading organ to plan the country's program of manned space mission, satellites and lunar exploration as a whole, said Qi Faren, chief designer of China's first five Shenzhou spaceships and a National Committee member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).

liglats my answer is here .......> chinots.

I think someone like publiusr might be able to correct me on this but I don't think China is ready yet, either due to technical or political reasons but it might have heavy lift in the works. When compared to all the launch vehicles of Russian/Soviet design the Chinese launch vehicles of are much easier to follow. The Chinese space program ability is connected to China's military ability, much like the US launchers came from Atlas ICBMs or how Titan served as a backup should the Atlas nuclear missile ever fail. Although Rumsfeld is now trying to sell the US public ideas like Starwars and missile defence the fact remains that the USA has not built a new missile in the past 20 years, and they no longer have liquid propellant ICBMs since the year 1987. The Russian space program has also been linked to its military ability, UR-launcher, SS-6, Tsiklon, R-36, SS-11, Topol-SS-25 and the Soyuz rocket you see today is a modified version of the old R7 ICBM that stuck Sputnik and Gagarin into orbit. Not many Russian launch vehicles are really true space-rockets only the Energia, N-1 ( failure ), and Zenit were designed from the beginning as space launch vehicles rather than for use as nuclear missiles.

LongMarch launcher for space exploration was also know as ChangZheng and the Chinese rockets have been abbreviated both LM and CZ, the Dongfeng ballistic nuke missile or DF-missile is the generic Chinese name for all of its land ICBMs. The Chinese nuclear missiles are known or in production are CSS-NX-5 (JL-2), DF-5, DF-5A (CSS-4A), DF-22, DF-31 (CSS-9), DF-41 (CSS-X-10 ). China's space launch vehicles are still easy to follow LM1 or CZI was launched in 1970 carrying small payloads into LEO, the LM2 or CZII launched in 1975, CZIII or LM3 was in 1984, while LM-IV or CZ-4 was sent up in 1988. China's current manned launcher is based on the old LongMarch-II which came from a DF-5/FB-1 ICBM launch vehicle, the Shenzhou launches with the LongMarch-2F.

So where will China go for the next launchers the LM5 or LM6 ? China could build a totally new launcher from the ground up dedicated for space exploration like Russia and America have done or the Chinese could pull out some of their not-so-secret ICBMs designs and use these as a baseline for its next LM5. The DF5 inspired the Shenzhou launcher, it was an old nuke missile. The DF5 is the one missile that China publicly admits to having or has put on display during its military shows. The West suspects that the Chinese have more missiles, but China won't admit it because it might cause upset or create political trouble. The DF-5 is the Chinese liquid fuel type ICBM is the only official confirmed one by the PRC public statements.

The Chinese have a very different views from west on nuke deterrence issue, they simply deny first strike ability while at the same time hiding all the great horrible details. A lot of China's missiles are buried deep into their giant mountains or hidden deep into cave tunnel networks. Russian and American spies have already learnt of these mountian bunkers and now understand the original DF-5 was stored and tested in a horizontal position in tunnels under high mountains, they did however admit to having a range of 10,000 km which means they could hit part of the USA. Another reason China might not be ready to use their ICBMs as a baseline for space-launchers is that they are having problems with their nuke missiles or have encountered technical probelms, but many suspect that China can hit Australia, Italy and the USA or almost anywhere on the planet if not everywhere with nukes, we know this, they know that we know this, but they continue to deny this due to geographic, economic or political reasons. The other missiles we think the Chinese have or are pretty sure they are building ( which could be adpated as space launchers ) are missiles like CSS-NX-5, DF-31, DF-31A and CSS-X-10. These missiles are not out in the open or admitted to in public but we know they are disguised as shipping containers, camouflaged or concealed using other innovative methods such as hiding the nuke missiles in large train structures but the Russians and Americans have still spotted them.
http://www.aeronautics.ru/archive/wm...c/css9_003.jpg
LM-5 could easily be built using one of their not-so-secret ICBMS as a baseline, but it will only put about 25 T into LEO. They could build a new launcher from their current nuke missile tech but it would only have a payload similar to a Titan-Centaur, Proton, Ariane, or the CLV/CEV. In other words the LM5 would be heavy-medium and won't get an astronaut from China to the Moon or Mars.

What the Chinese need to get their people on the Red-Planet is an LM-6 built from the ground-up without ICBM tech or a very heavy launcher like the Saturn-V or Energia was. It is clear that China does have reason for a future ChangZheng-6 or LM-VI, they have declared plans for the Moon. The LM-6 would be launched from Hainan this would be China's next generation Heavy ELV for lunar and deepspace trajectory or injection of 70 T in LEO orbits.

China Moon Probe Readied for April ’07 liftoff

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Lean and mean space program they have. Good stuff.