CNN October 13, 2003
CNN NEWSNIGHT AARON BROWN 22:00
COOPER: All right.
Well still ahead on NEWSNIGHT, the new space race. The Chinese prepare to send man into space but who exactly is it?
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COOPER: Well those of you at a certain age will no doubt recall the early days of the first space race when Shepard, Garron (ph) and Glenn were household names. Well, now the Chinese are trying to join the list of space faring countries.
But in a media strategy that is more like the secrecy shrouded Soviet space program of the early 1960s we don't know exactly when this week the launch might happen or even which one of the three Ticonauts (ph), what the Chinese are calling their astronauts, will be asked to make the first ride into space.
Here's what we do know from CNN's Miles O'Brien.
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MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Four decades after the Soviet Union and then the U.S. first sent men into space, China is poised to match the feat, join the elite club, and perhaps launch a new race in space.
JOAN JOHNSON-FREESE, NAVAL WAR COLLEGE: It could be a Sputnik shock all over again or it could be the American public beginning to question whether or not the U.S., whether deliberately or not, has begun to cede its leadership in manned space.
O'BRIEN: Western observers are convinced the Chinese flight is much more than a one-off stunt. They first began their efforts to send humans into space 11 years ago, have flown four unmanned test flights, and if all goes well on their early manned missions plan to launch a space station of their own and within 15 year establish a permanent outpost on the moon, lofty goals indeed.
BOB WALKER, SPACE ANALYST: It's a very aggressive program where they're putting lots of resources into it and they believe it's a part of their national destiny.
O'BRIEN: In a sense the Chinese began the space race, first investing rockets in the 13th Century using the so-called fire arrows to stave off invading Mongols.
And, according to Chinese legend, the first person with the right stuff was a 16th Century man named Juan Hu (ph). He supposedly strapped 47 rockets to a wicker chair, had 47 assistants light the fuses hoping to reach the moon. Not a trace of him was found.
Hundreds of years later the Chinese are clearly no longer in the space vanguard. They're flying a capsule that is little more than a knock-off of the Russian Soyuz designed in the '60s and their launch facility in the Gobi Desert looks strikingly similar to NASA's Kennedy Space Center but western experts don't doubt their desire or ability to quickly catch up.
CHARLES VICK, GLOBAL SECURITY: What seems to be 40 years behind in technology can really come up and fool you very quickly. Immediately it is not a direct threat that cannot be dealt with by our capabilities and certainly our military predominance in space.
O'BRIEN: Analysts say former Chinese Leader Zhang Zemin first authorized the manned program after witnessing the U.S. military prowess in the first Gulf War aided by space-based assets but the motivation runs deeper than that.
JOHNSON-FREESE: I am convinced the Chinese have observed or have read the playbook, if you will, for the U.S. Apollo experience and decided that they are pursuing a manned space activity for exactly the same reasons that we did and those reasons are many not a single reason.
O'BRIEN: It's about enhancing their international prestige, building national pride at home, advancing science and technology and creating jobs. No less than 270,000 are employed by the Chinese Space Program.
VICK: If the Chinese decide to take leadership in this area and decide to challenge us both commercially as well as perhaps strategically then the United States has to make a very, very clear decision about whether or not we are going to advance our space technology or whether or not we're going to rest on our laurels of the past.
O'BRIEN: The Chinese know a little something about resting on their laurels. It's a lesson they learned in the 13th Century. It might be time for advocates of U.S. space prowess to brush up on some history.
Miles O'Brien, CNN, Atlanta.
© Copyright 2003, Cable News Network
