Space flight in service of science
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China Daily, September 30, 2011
Tiangong-1 (or Heavenly Palace) space module is the first step toward China's plan to build a space station around 2020. Its launch by China has unnerved some countries, which are asking why China did not add on to the International Space Station that has been in place since 1998. After all, the Americans, Russians, Europeans and Japanese are using one platform to experiment in space.
Questions have also been asked about China's ultimate purpose in space and hints made that there is something as diabolical as the theme in a James Bond movie, in which Chinese-looking enemies were at the root of some evil plot to control the world.
Chinese don't see themselves that way, and never in history have they been flag-planting colonialists. Most Westerners are schooled in the exploits of the great European explorers, headed by Christopher Columbus and James Cook, and followed closely by the legions of culture egotists with a mix of guns, gold and the gospel in their hands.
In contrast, Zheng He, the great Chinese navigator, took fleets to Africa and the Middle East to promote goodwill, with gifts of chinaware and art. No flags claiming possession of distant colonies. But this is alien to Western society.
In this century, it is clear space cannot be claimed by one nation. Yet superiority of technology in space does seem to be on some minds. Former US president Ronald Reagan caused consternation with his ambitious Star Wars program. So when China shot down its own satellite as a test in January 2010 there were jitters in the West about Star Wars-like scenario becoming reality in the near future.
To understand why China is about to launch its own space station, we need look no farther than to American astronaut Charles "Pete" Conrad, who said: "The Skylab flight is near and dear to my heart. Some people don't understand it means more to me than going to the moon."
Certainly walking on the moon is a unique experience, but Pete's team on Skylab observed the Earth, sun and the heavens for extended experiences and relayed breathtaking information back to scientists for analysis and understanding. China is about to share Pete's romance with space.
Seeing the Earth from space is, shall we say, a "world-shattering" experience. Kenneth Boulding didn't go up there, but he indulged in the first photographs taken of the planet as a whole during the Apollo (pre-moon) program in 1966 and penned the exquisite essay, Spaceship Earth.
