Chinese astronauts walked in space for the first time this past weekend. But did anyone notice? Noticeably absent was reporting from the mainstream media. There has been no Larry King special, no hoopla, just yawns for only the third nation in history to take a step out of the blue and into the black.
Zhai Zhigang, the commander of China’s Shenzhou VII spacecraft took a short walk in space for less than 15 minutes this past Saturday. The 68-hour voyage saw the spacecraft climb to 215 miles above the Earth’s surface. It was just 5 years earlier when China had its maiden spaceflight.
Taking off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in northwest China, the astronauts took the first steps towards building the Chinese space station of the future. Now, normally, I would reserve this blog for information about the space tourism industry.
But, China stepping into space for the first time is a big deal, a really big deal. It complicates the space race by putting another superpower at the table in regard to science, technology and military applications plus the possibility of the Big Red State entering the space tourism industry in a few years as well.
The Russians and Americans may have greatly this event with a big ole yawn. But, who will be yawning a few years from now when China has more people in space than Disney has riders at Space Mountain? Hey, it could happen.
