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The Economist reports that the Chinese are good to go...almost:



Economist.com | China in space



IT IS a little-known fact that the first manned space rocket was Chinese. In the 16th century an inventor called Wan Hu built and tested a rocket-propelled chair in which he planned to ascend to heaven. In a way, he did. On launch, Wan, the chair, 47 rockets and two kites evaporated in flame and smoke, never to be seen again.



It was left to the Russians, followed by the Americans, to make the journey successfully in the early 1960s. But China has been nursing similar ambitions for decades, and despite repeated false alarms, the departure of the first “taikonauts” now looks imminent. China has already sent up three unmanned Shenzhou (Sacred Vessel) spacecraft, the most recent having been launched at the end of March. Each of these craft has three seats. At the moment those seats are occupied by dummies, but real people are expected to sit in them within a year or so.

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