China in Space

Rev. 6/14/10--During the last few days, all China was watching China's third manned space mission as three Chinese astronauts (taikonauts) circled the globe for a few days, and one of them undertook the first ever space walk for China. Millions of eyes were glued to coverage on CCTV, China's national TV network. They returned safely to earth over the weekend, but there continues to be coverage of the space flight, post mission congratulations, and even footage with commentary on various other factual and fictional space missions (even Clint Eastwood and aging companions in "Space Cowboys," also known as "The Ripe Stuff"). Clearly, space fever has gotten hold of the national consciousness.

I have an extra interest in space missions myself, not only from an enduring childhood interest in this kind of thing, but also because Ron Garan, Jr., one of the two US astronauts doing extended walks in space this spring is the nephew of my wife's childhood best friend.

Here are some relevant links:

CCTV-Home in Chinese, CCTV-home in English.
CCTV-HD viewer with buttons for different channels, including in English, French, and Spanish
(The site will ask you to install something for the viewer--I think quality is excellent for PC viewing, though I don't actually have an HD screen).
Chinese National Space Agency-CNSAEng
Xinhua Chinese News Agency-Xinhua in Eng


Here is some relevant vocabulary for space exploration in general. (The PRC and Taiwan don't use the same words for everything, and some words used to describe foreign space missions may be different from those used for their own missions. The words below may fit into all of these categories.):

Space 太空 tai4 kong1 (this is the word that the taikonaut word for astronaut comes from)
Universe, space 宇宙 yu3 zhou4
Orbit 轨道 gui3 dao4
Space flight 航天 hang2tian1

Spaceship 宇宙飞船 yu3zhou4 fei1chuan2
Space Shuttle 航天飞机 hang2tian1 fei1ji1
International space station 国际空间站 guo2ji4 kong1jian1 zhan4
Hubble Space Telescope 哈伯太空望远镜 ha1bo2 tai4kong1 wang4yuan3jing4
Satellite 卫星 wei4xing1
Space Probe 空间探测 kong1jian1 tan4ce4

Space exploration 太空探索tai4kong1 tan4 suo3
Space program 太空计划 tai4kong1 ji4hua4
Space Race 太空竞赛 tai4kong1 jing4sai4

The Chinese spacecraft that just went up
Shenzhou 7 神舟七号 shen2zhou1 qi1hao4
Shenzhou 7 神七 shen2qi1

Astronaut 航天员 hang2tian1yuan2
Astronaut 航天乘员 hang2tian1 cheng2yuan2

The three astronauts (taikonauts) who just went up
Zhai Zhigang 翟志刚 Zhai2 Zhi4gang1
Liu Boming 刘伯明 Liu2 Bo2ming2
Jing Haipeng 景海鹏 Jing3 Hai3peng2

Launch/Lift off 发射 fa1she4
Landing/touch down 着陆 zhuo2lu4

Space walk 太空漫步 tai4kong1 man4bu4 (sounds like space mambo)
EVA-extra-vehicular activity 舱外活动 cang1wai4 huo2dong4

Chinese National Space Administration 国家航天局 guo2jia1 hang2tian1ju2
(US) NASA 美国宇航局 mei3guo2 yu3hang2ju2
European Space Agency 欧洲航天局 Ou1zhou1 hang2tian1ju2

Astronomy 天文学 tian1 wen2 xue2
Galaxy 银河系 yin2he2xi4
Milky Way Galaxy 银河 yin2he2
Solar system 太阳系 tai4yang2xi4
Sun 太阳 tai4yang2
Planet 惑星 huo4 xing1
Earth 地球 di4qiu2
Moon 月亮 yue4 liang5

Mercury 水星 shui3xing1
Venus 金星 jin1xing1
Mars 火星 huo3xing1
Jupiter 木星 mu4xing1
Saturn 土星 tu3xing1
Uranus 天王星 tian1wang2xing1
Neptune 海王星 hai3 wang2 xing1
Pluto 冥王星 ming2wang2xing1
Asteroid belt 小行星带 xiao3xing2xing1 dai4

Gravity 重力 zhong4li4
Weightlessness 失重 shi1 zhong4
Black hole 黑洞 hei1dong4
Cosmic ray 宇宙射线 yu3zhou4 she4xian4

UFO 幽浮 you1fu2
Extra-terrestrial/alien 外星人 wai4xing1ren2


(in progress)