From Xinhua, Countdown begins for China's space station program.
Interesting article in AWCurrent Long March Rockets To Keep Flyinghttp://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_channel.jsp?channel=space&id=news/asd/2010/11/08/03.xml&headline=Current%20Long%20March%20Rockets%20To%20Keep%20Flying
What would be the orbital inclination ?
the Chinese Space Program is very secretive. I'd be surprised if anyone here knew the budget!
I am not sure whether it is correct to say that the Chinese space programme is more secretive than - for example - the US programme is. Both carefully guard details of their military missions, but both are open about their primarily civil programmes.As for budgets, that is something which the Chinese rarely discuss. You may get a few isolated quotes here and there about specific missions, but nothing for the overall programme.Umandelbaum, are you doing a study for a specific client? Or maybe you cannot say!
I guess that without elections to hold them accountable, the CNSA budget must be nearly unlimited as long as they produce results - similar to how much money NASA got back during the Apollo program.
If those economic projections are true, after Chine outgrows USA economy it could afford quite a robust space program.
I would agree that China is very open about what its civil manned space program is doing
Could you expand on that a bit? Because as best I can determine there is no civil manned space program in China. None. Zero.You may perhaps be thinking of the China Manned Space Engineering Office (CMSEO). CMSEO is a special department within the General Armaments Department of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).The PLA is not a civilian organization.
Quote from: sdsds on 05/08/2011 06:19 pmCMSEO is a special department within the General Armaments Department of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).The PLA is not a civilian organization.While this is *technically* true
CMSEO is a special department within the General Armaments Department of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).The PLA is not a civilian organization.
the PLA runs a lot of stuff that is not directly related to defense. The distinction between "civil" and "military" is much less well defined...
You've made this mistake before: http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=7058.msg656968#msg656968
And continue to make it, because technically it is not a mistake. In fact politically it is a crucially important fact.
We almost made the same mistake in the United States and I for one am quite pleased with the wisdom of those who established NASA as a purely civilian organization.