Here's the latest on the Chinese space program:
China's first manned spacecraft could be launched "as early as next month" from a site in the remote northwest and will probably contain one crew member, the state-owned People's Daily reported today on its Web site.
It gave no further details about a timetable for the craft, Shenzhou-5, which the government had said earlier would fly with a Chinese crew aboard by next year. The flight will probably last 24 hours, the newspaper said.
What strikes me as interesting about this is that there is no official timetable given for this launch, which seems to be the approach they're taking for the program overall. There have been statements to the effect that they "could" be on the moon within five years, but I'll bet if that does happen, it will be handled pretty much like this. They'll give a little heads up a month or so ahead of time and then we won't hear anything official until they've got astronauts (or are they cosmonauts?) safely on the moon. In fact, we might not hear anything official until the moon mission is complete and the astronauts are safely back on the ground. There is a terrible risk of loss of face here should anything go wrong. The Chinese want the glory and prestige of a space program, but they have to avoid humiliation at all costs.
That's part of the reason (no doubt) that there is no official date given for the launch mentioned above. I'm sure that a strong dose of good old communist paranoia plays a role, too. But if they don't say when the launch is going to take place, they won't lose face if it doesn't happen on the assigned date.
via InstaPundit