Chinese Publish Space Mission Talks Before Take-Off
China's official news agency was ahead of time, publishing the article about a long-expected space mission, describing the conversation between astronauts in space, even before the rocket left the Earth.
The story "Sleepless Night on the Pacific, Sidelights on the Observation and Control of the 30th Lap of the Shenzhou 7 Spaceship," appeared on Thursday on Xinhua news site, but was later removed. The staff of the web site explained that the story was a "technical error".
The Shenzhou VII space mission was scheduled on Thursday between 9:07 a.m. EDT and 10:27 p.m. EDT, while the article, telling about the spacecraft in orbit and conversation between three astronauts in space was released several hours before the launch.
Xinhua article quoted:
"After this order, signal lights all were switched on, various data show up on rows of screens, hundreds of technicians staring at the screens, without missing any slightest changes ...
'One minute to go!'
'Changjiang No.1 found the target!'..."The firm voice of the controller broke the silence of the whole ship. Now, the target is captured 12 seconds ahead of the predicted time ...
'The air pressure in the cabin is normal!'
"Ten minutes later, the ship disappears below the horizon. Warm clapping and excited cheering breaks the night sky, echoing across the silent Pacific Ocean."
The dialogue between the astronauts described in details, what should have been the first spacewalk, when the crew was still on the ground.
The space mission will be the first step to China's far-sighted plan to build a permanent space laboratory. China plans to initiate two unmanned spacecraft's missions and one more manned space mission by year 2010.
Source: The Times
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