Description

This book presents the history of the manned space programme of the People’s Republic of China. For the first time, all Shenzhou flights are described in detail, up to Shenzhou-10. Shenzhou-11 is described comprehensively in ‘Jing & Chen’. This account is accompanied by the early days of these flights and several “future guessing” elements based on the most recent Chinese statements. Shenzhou is also a compilation of information obtained mostly from Chinese press websites since the late 1990s. Monitoring Chinese space activities over short periods of time is never very productive. However, one in three articles always includes one or two lines of unpublished information. They cannot be detected by the layperson or the ‘general information journalist’ who will tend to focus on sources that emphasize immediacy and impact. But the time of the media has nothing to do with the time spent by the collector, the explorer and above all the investigator. With China, you only win in the long run. One piles up, tests the assembly, sorts and starts again until he gets an image that is consistent in technical and astronautic terms and that fits well in the Chinese con- text. As you will have understood, capturing information and piling up files is not enough; a systemic approach is needed to give the most comprehensive view of the subject. The resulting added value can be substantial.