Go Taikonauts!

In the Press

Last updated: October 1, 2000


Awards

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Space site of the week
(July 9, 2000)
Did you know that China is aiming for a possible first manned space launch by 2001? If you're after information covering space activities in mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, visit 'Go Taikonauts', an unofficial but highly-respected web site on the Chinese space programme run by Chen Lan, a chinese engineer who lives in Singapore. And in case you are wondering, 'taikonaut' derives from the chinese character 'taikong' meaning space or cosmos.


SpaceViews

Space site of the week
(April 6, 1998)
While there are countless Web sites dedicated to information about NASA, and a fair number of sites focused on Soviet and Russian space efforts, there's little online about the Chinese space program, even as they become a major player in commercial launches, and perhaps soon human spaceflight. "Dragon in Space" is a detailed unofficial Web site about Chinese space efforts, including Chinese space news, a gallery of rocket and satellite photos, and links to other Chinese space resources online. This site is a valuable tool for anyone looking for more information about Chinese space efforts.

News Clips


Agence France-Presse

"Taikonauts" -- China's rival to astronauts and cosmonauts?
(November 23, 1999)

"Taikonaut" derives from the Chinese characters "taikong," meaning space or cosmos. The official Chinese press has so far used the term "yuhangyuan," or space navigator, to describe a Chinese in space.
A website specialising in the Chinese space effort, www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Launchpad/1921/qa.htm, says "taikonaut" was minted by a Malaysian space fan, Chiew Lee Yih, who spread it among Internet news groups in May 1998.



Jane's Intelligence Review

China's Space Dream Countdown is in Sight
(September, 1999)

By Phillip S Clark


In September - October 1996 a group of Chinese trainers and two 'taikonauts' candidates arrived at Russia's Yuri Gararin cosmonaut training centre at Zvevdny Gorodok on the outskirt of Moscow ('taikonaut' being a Chinese astronaut; the name appears to have been first used by
Chen Lan on his 'Dragon in Space' website).
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PRI's the World

Chinese in Space
(July 20, 1999)

(Transcript provided by Public Radio International's The World
)

HOST INTRO: It was thirty years ago today that Neil Armstrong ...... Now China has announced plans to become only the third nation in history to launch a human into space. The World's technology correspondent Rebecca Roberts reports.
............
NARR: ....... And the manned space flight would carry a message for the average Chinese citizen. It would be a patriotic event, something Chinese citizens can be proud of.
Chen Lan is. He lives in Singapore.

CHEN LAN: This is a very important thing for Chinese citizens and China.

NARR: Chen has even coined a name for the Chinese astronauts.
He calls them Taikonauts.

CHEN LAN: This is because Taikong means space in Chinese. So I think this word is very good for describing the Chinese astronaut because the astro or cosmo also means space. So taikonaut may be best word for describing Chinese space men.

............



CNN.com

China aims for 'prestige' of human spaceflight
(June 30, 1999)
By Robin Lloyd
CNN Interactive Senior Writer

............

(CNN) -- China's plan to put two men in space by the end of 2000 is part of a larger program that aspires to launch an independent space station and achieve a lunar landing early in the next millennium, according to reports and experts. Those feats would make China the world's third nation with a far-reaching human spaceflight capability.

The first launch in the program -- an unmanned spacecraft -- is set for October 1999 to mark the 50th anniversary of the founding of People's Republic of China, experts say. Chinese astronauts, called taikonauts and first trained by Russians in 1996, are expected to go up in a rocket-launched spacecraft nine to 12 months later.
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Some of those details and photos have surfaced recently on the Internet, including a site called "Dragon in Space" or "Go Taikonauts!"
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USA Today Florida Today Space Online

China looks to blast off into the Space Age elite
(June 28, 1999)
By Paul Hoversten
Gannett News Service

............

Wu and Li already have a moniker - ''taikonauts'' - that appears on a Web site run by a Chinese software engineer in Singapore named Chen Lan.

The term, Chen explains, comes from the Chinese word ''taikong,'' which means space or cosmos. Traditionally, the term ''astronaut'' has referred to someone aboard a U.S. spacecraft, while ''cosmonaut'' has been used for someone on a Russian spacecraft.

The taikonauts probably will stay aloft for at least a day, testing the maneuverability of their capsule, Clark said.
............



Discovery Channel Online

Photos of Chinese manned spacecraft online
(June 14, 1999)
Story by Tamar Simon
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The photos of the "CZ-2F" launcher were posted on May 9, 1999 to "Chinese Military Forum", a U.S.-based website with Chinese-speaking visitors from all over the world, including mainland China. The pictures became the subject of an online article entitled "Man Rated Launcher Photo, True or False?" by Chen Lan, a software engineer, space enthusiast and webmaster for the Dragon in Space site. Chen Lan noted that the anonymous poster claimed the photos were taken in May 1998 in Jiuquan, and were scanned from a brochure of an Inner-Mongolian construction company, which was probably the contractor building the facilities.

And while Chen Lan remains cautious about the authenticity of the photos -- "this forum has so many faked photos" he says -- both he and Oberg say there are reasons to believe the pictures are authentic.

"The details seem true, when the photo is compared with other photos," Chen Lan said in an interview from his home in Singapore. "The launch facility is new, it never appears in previous photos, so it would be difficult to fake."
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SpaceViews

Photos Give First Glimpse of Chinese Manned Launcher
(June 11, 1999)
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Chen Lan, editor of the "Dragon in Space" Web site and an expert on the Chinese space program, has examined the photos in detail and concluded that the photos are "almost true."

"I believe, at least, the photos contain some 'truth'," he wrote in an article on his site. "That is, the photos are true, or they are 'composite photos' based on true models, or even modified 'true photos' to avoid 'secrets leakage'."
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ABCNews.com

Errors Mar Cox Report
(June 2, 1999)
By James Oberg
Special to ABCNEWS.com
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A Chinese engineer named Chen Lan, who lives in Singapore and runs a highly-respected Web site on the Chinese space program, has also criticized the Cox report. “These low-level errors should have been avoided if they did the work a little more seriously,” he posted recently.

Chen Lan reported that flight statistics and payload capabilities were often in error.
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The New York Times

Chinese Suddenly Improved Rocket Launches, Expert Says
(June 18, 1998)
by Eric Schmitt
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At Wednesday's hearing, Sokolski, citing information on Chinese rocket reliability obtained from a Singapore-based web site, Dragon in Space, that tracks Chinese commercial satellite launches, said he had no doubt that U.S. space technology that helped Beijing's military arsenal had been transfered to China.
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