Relayed by Jim Oberg. Phillip Clark may wish to provide his opinion and comments. > South China Morning Post / November 16, 1999 > Unmanned space shuttle launch 'within weeks' > by Oliver Chou > > China will be ready to launch its first unmanned space shuttle before the end > of the year, a pro-Beijing paper said yesterday. > > The Hong Kong-based Wen Wei Po quoted unidentified Beijing experts as saying > the spacecraft would be launched from the Jiuquan launch centre in Gansu > province. > > The paper said finishing touches were being added to a launch-pad known as > the rocket vertical assembling centre, which is the same as that used by the > United States to launch its shuttles. > > The Long March 2E rocket, which can carry a capsule weighing a maximum 10 > tonnes, would be augmented into a stronger 2F rocket. > > Experts were quoted as saying China had "solid technology" to retrieve the > capsule. [remainder deleted] ----------------------------------------------------------------- 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/seesat/seesatindex.html