On Thu, 23 May 2002, Ed Cannon wrote: > > "China will not be launching a manned mission to the Moon in > > the foreseeable future, according to Ouyang Ziyuan, chief > > scientist of China's Moon exploration programme. > http://news.bbc.co.uk/low/english/sci/tech/newsid_2000000/2000506.stm When this story surfaced earlier this week I checked out the _original_ material (not western reports) on the Xinhua and Peoples' Daily web sites. There, the story was that the first manned flight would come before 2005 and exploration of the Moon could be expected for around 2010. Nowhere did it say _manned_ exploration of the Moon ! On Wednesday evening I recorded an interview for BBC World Service Radio's "The World Today" programme and emphasised what the Chinese actually said and what the western media claimed was said. My guess has always be that the Chinese footsteps on the Moon will be around 2020 ..... maybe to celebrate 40 years since Neil Armstrong, sine the US won't be doing anything similar ....... Phillip Clark --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Phillip S Clark Flat 2 Wellington House Molniya Space Consultancy Castle Hill Passage Compiler/Publisher, Worldwide Satellite Hastings Launches E Sussex TN34 1PG U.K. The only way to comprehend what politicians say and do is to make to basic assumption that their brains were surgically removed before they entered politics. (My own philosophy.) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe from SeeSat-L by sending a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@lists.satellite.eu.org http://www2.satellite.eu.org/sat/seesat/seesatindex.html
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