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WITH the successful landing of Shenzhou VI this Monday, it isn't just the Chinese press claiming the country has won new prestige for its home-grown space programme.
Shenzhou Ⅵ has brought out patriotic enthusiasm in many Chinese. XINHUAChina, once again, has demonstrated that it is among the elite number of countries capable of human space flight," said Michael Griffin, US National Aeronautics and Space Administration Administrator in this weekend's Washington Post article.
"Several experts agree that China has little chance of matching the US in space anytime soon, but Shenzhou VI is about aspirations. Whether China will ultimately become a US competitor in space, a collaborator or both remains an open question."
According to the article, Shenzhou VI fulfils the first part of US Naval War College's Joan Johnson-Freese's "three-phase" human spaceflight programme: "First, demonstrate manned spaceflight; second, do more sophisticated maneuvers, including spacewalks and docking; and third, put together a small space station".
"Shenzhou VI marks the latest achievement in a deliberate programme that launched its first satellite in 1970, but languished for years during the cultural revolution.
"During this period, and even before then, China learned to fend for itself in space. Part of it was that they had no choice. China was estranged from both the US and the Soviet Union, the world's other space-going nations.
"But another part was the Communist Party leadership's wish to showcase Chinese self-reliance in a high-profile scientific and technological endeavor.
"In the beginning, China regarded space as a tool for economic development. They were interested in earth-resource satellites? finding fertile land, rainfall, figuring out to build railroads. Then over time they branched out in communications and began looking at navigation.
"Also," added Johnson-Freese, "space is something that China has done to create jobs in a high-tech industry, to show ‘We don't just make cheap clothes'."
aspiration: 渴望
estrange: 疏远
collaborator: 合作者
languish: 发展缓慢
docking: 对接
elite: 精英
maneuver: 演习
endeavor: 努力
prestige: 威望
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发表于 2016-8-12 16:23:13