Coué, Philippe - Shenzhou, China in space (ebook)

Shenzhou, China in space (pdf ebook version)

Philippe Coué

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one in three articles always includes one or two lines of unpublished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 investiga-
tor. 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 com-
prehensive view of the subject. The resulting added value can be sub-
stantial. This is the approach that has been followed and the reader will be the judge of whether this target has been reached.

222 pages - in english