Jan 12 1980
From The Space Library
January 12-14: The newspaper Wen Hui, published in Shanghai, reported that the People's Republic of China was training astronauts for space travel and that the forthcoming first issue of a publication called Science Life would contain photographs of "pilots in space clothes in a simulated spacecraft, lying on a vibration platform or being thrown down from a height of 20 meters in a shock test," as well as in a weightless environment, according to the Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS).
This was the first time the Chinese press had mentioned training of space crews. FBIS said that the new publication would contain an article on space food and that the simulations of space life had already been made into a documentary film. The Wen Hui article did not say when or if China would send someone into space; however, during U.S. Defense Secretary Harold Brown's visit, a deputy chief of staff for PRC armed forces said a manned space program was not one of China's top priorities. FBIS also reported publication in a Shanghai paper of pictures of a dog that had returned from space; an editorial in that paper called China the third nation to master the technology of satellite retrieval. (FBIS, Beijing Xinhua, Jan 12/80; Hong Kong Wen Wei Po, Jan 14/80; W Post, Jan 13/80, 16)
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