Word: missioners
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...SkyLab astronaut Owen K. Garriott, his passion has long been space flight. Now, at a reported cost of more than $30 million, he will become the sixth private citizen to travel into orbit. Garriott is preparing to join the crew of the Soyuz TMA 13 mission as a spaceflight participant, thanks to Space Adventures, a company he helped found. He spoke to TIME about his upcoming voyage from the cosmonaut training facility in Star City, Russia...
...Sept. 25, the Shenzhou VII is scheduled to launch from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in western Gansu province in prime time between 9:07p.m. and 10:27 p.m. The mission will be the country's first to carry three astronauts - or hangtianyuan, as they are called in Chinese - into orbit. The spacecraft, a modified version of the Russian Soyuz vessel, will carry a Russian and a Chinese-designed space suit. "This is big," says Joan Johnson-Freese, an expert on the Chinese space program at the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. "It's not easy to design...
...astronauts are scheduled to don the spacesuits, and one will make the historic spacewalk. A small monitoring satellite will be released from the ship during the mission. The crew is People's Liberation Army Air Force fighter pilots Zhai Zhigang, Liu Boming and Jing Haipeng. "Shenzhou VII is another breakthrough in China's development of manned spaceflght, and we are entrusted with an honorable mission with historical significance," Zhai told a pre-launch press conference on Sept. 24. "As an astronaut, it is the greatest honor to launch into space on behalf of our motherland...
...time when the reputation of "Made in China" is once again being battered by a product safety scandal - this time chemical-tainted milk - China will see a successful space mission as a welcome fall extension of its Summer Olympic glory. "When combined with a successful Olympics, it becomes very difficult for China to be [seen] as a developing country," says Yan Xuetong, director of the Institute of International Studies at Tsinghua University in Beijing. "With the huge amount of money spent and the high-tech capacity, the two things will make the world believe that China is a developed country...
...instance, that he is "prone to pork-barrel spending," but says that to reinvigorate Japan's economy he plans to spend more to stimulate domestic demand. "The economic situation is getting tough," said Aso on Sept. 22, the day he was elected to lead his party. "The biggest mission given to me is to resolve this, and I plan to do my utmost." If he succeeds, Japan has a shot at some stable leadership that could reinvigorate a tired electorate. If he fails, Aso might set a record for the shortest term in office by a postwar Japanese prime minister...