China Announces Launch-Success Details — Before Launch 307
Ironsides writes "After faking the fireworks at the Olympics this year, one would have thought China had learned their lesson. Now, it appears they announced the success of their manned space mission before liftoff even occured, complete with dialogue."
What's next, a fake moon walk? (Score:5, Funny)
Nothing like a guaranteed success
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the sad thing is, this deception was so unnecessary. i mean, obviously they didn't mean to post the article until after the launch. and in all likelihood the launch will probably be success, and even if the launch weren't people would eventually find out.
so why go through the trouble to write fake news about a space mission that you're planning on carrying out anyway? that defeats the purpose doesn't it?
Re:What's next, a fake moon walk? (Score:4, Informative)
China wrote this article before the launch, so it could get it out as soon as success was confirmed, with little to no editing. Upon failure, articles such as this are suppose to be thrown out. This one never made it that far.
Yes, but this wasn't a prep piece (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, and the obituary of every major public figure has already been written as well. Such prep pieces are responsible practice for newspapers that have to be ready on-the-spot.
This wasn't one of those pieces. This was an entire narrative complete with faked dialogue and details, such as being complete ahead of schedule. This wasn't preparation -- this was deception.
Unfortunately, lately we seem to have absolutely no room to talk, given the practices of our own "You-have-to-give-me-700-billion-dollars-right-now-no-questions-asked-or-there-will-be-disaster" government.
Re:Yes, but this wasn't a prep piece (Score:5, Informative)
Yes, and the obituary of every major public figure has already been written as well. Such prep pieces are responsible practice for newspapers that have to be ready on-the-spot.
This wasn't one of those pieces. This was an entire narrative complete with faked dialogue
Yes, it was one of those pieces. You'll find that lots of news agencies have prep obituaries with "faked" messages of condolences. It helps to structure the article if there's dummy content in there. They are removed and replaced with the real messages once the real condolence messages are made.
The same happened here. The "faked" dialogue was nothing more than dummy text.
Re:Yes, but this wasn't a prep piece (Score:5, Insightful)
Exactly. Any major news company does this kind of thing if there's a big event coming that they know about; it's just part of being prepared.
You can just imagine how it went down - ask an intern to draft a victorious announcement. Jazz it up with some dialogue, use your imagination, etc. Sure, posting it ahead of time was pretty dumb, but hardly the huge conspiracy of deception that the summary makes it out to be - how exactly could you fake a successful rocket launch, anyway? Or more so - hide an explosive failure?
Ridiculous. It's much ado about nothing. I bet this happens every day.
And as for the "fake fireworks", I have another revelation for everyone - did you see that man who ran in the air all around the stadium? See him? Well, prepare to have your mind blown. Are you ready? Sure you're really ready? OK, get this:
He wasn't really flying!
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You do realize that fireworks are real and flying people aren't, right? There's a difference in faking one over the other because of that fact.
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What I don't get about the "faked" fireworks is this -- are we that jealous that China pulled off such a STUNNING opening that we have to nit-pick at one tiny feature? That lighting, the drummers, the organization, the structuring, the organization, the music, the dancers, the orchestration of the whole thing was magnificent. As a Canadian, I'm glad we didn't win this bid because I doubt we'd have pulled something that fantastically awesome out of our hats.
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``how exactly could you fake a successful rocket launch, anyway? Or more so - hide an explosive failure?''
Clearly, you don't realize how much control the powerful have over people's minds. In Europe, everybody knows things about Tibet, and in China, everybody knows things about Tibet. But the things people know often completely contradict one another. In what is now Serbia, some drunken vandals caused minor disturbances in Belgrade. Or, if you believed B92 instead of the state media, a massive protest again
Re:Thank you, Captain Obvious. (Score:5, Insightful)
No, THEY didn't, your media outlet did.
How did you watch the games, by Chinese broadcast, or by your own country's broadcaster? I watched the intro on Australian, Canadian and American networks and got different views of the opening ceremonies.
One of those even bothered to point out that the footsteps were taped beforehand and given to the outlets as pre-made footage to be played.
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NBC commentators said during the scene: "Your looking at a cinematic device, employed by Zhang Yimou here. This is actually almost animation. "
What's part of that didn't you understand? Additionally, if that wasn't clear, it's hardly the fault of the Chinese that the commentators didn't make it clear for you.
I didn't actually watch the opening ceremonies. I'm not a big pageantry fan. If they made a comment that that's what was being done, then I don't see what the fuss was about, but all the articles I read in the news gave the impression that that wasn't mentioned.
However, if those were the words spoken, then that's not very clear at all. A "cinematic device" could mean practically anything -- from an admission of computer-edited broadcast to a description of "real, live" special effects on the ground like
Re:Thank you, Captain Obvious. (Score:5, Funny)
Perhaps you wrote your reply in advance, not reading what you replied to, and accidentally posted it.
Begging the question. (Score:3, Insightful)
The difference between dummy text and "deception" is that the dummy text is not supposed to end up published. It seems likely that this article was published by accident, which makes it likely that this is in fact dummy text. I did not read any part of the parent's post that defended the publishing of propaganda.
Your argument is known as "begging the question." [nizkor.org]
1) Dummy text and deception differ in that dummy text isn't intended to be published.
2) The article was accidentally published.
3) Therefore the text in the article was dummy text and can't be an attempt at deception.
That's nonsense. You presuppose that scripted events can't be accidentally released and that the accidental release of the article proves that it's not deliberate falsehood. Your logic is built on a foundation of sand.
Just because the article
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Why are you so quick to jump to defend the practice of pulling the wool over the public's eyes with scripted, PR spin of a historical event? Is this something you support the media doing (state-run or not)? Would Apollo 11 have been better if NASA had actually recorded the conversations with Neil Armstrong on a sound-stage?
Media has moved on in the last 40-ish years. Prepping a press release is nothing new (as many have commented). I suppose you think Armstrong just stepped down off that ladder and suddenly was inspired to speak those words without any preparation or oversight from a "media communications manager"?
If USA's [alleged! lol] moon landing was happening now you could be sure that NASA would have press releases with picture from inside the orbiter (taken pre-flight) and the quote of the first words from the moon pre
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is there really a difference in "corporate" condolences?
this is like the Steve Jobs oops that happened a few weeks ago.
WTF? (Score:3, Insightful)
The same happened here. The "faked" dialogue was nothing more than dummy text.
The Chinese never heard of lorem ipsum??
Re:WTF? (Score:5, Funny)
They use rorem ipsum instead.
Not dummy text, but easily anticipated quotes (Score:5, Informative)
From the article (which is quite poetic), the "dummy quotes" are all things that they will say (assuming they're not all killed before they get chance).
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080925/ap_on_re_as/as_china_space_article_1 [yahoo.com]:
'One minute to go!'
'Changjiang No.1 found the target!'...
'The air pressure in the cabin is normal!'
That guy that says "One minute", well every trial run that's what he said, it's part of the mission. The guy that says "Changjiang 1 on target", you guessed it, he says that so everyone knows it's on target. Air pressure, ..., someone checks it every few minutes and announces the results occasionally.
The only bit in the article that's a little weird is the "target is captured 12 seconds ahead of the predicted time". But they perhaps predicted a time 12 seconds late on purpose, or are just using that as a device to show how 1337 they are.
Imagine you're writing an article about Bush addressing the nation you might prep with:
"Bush had his usual statesman like swagger as he approached the dais, 'fellow Americans' he drawled, before telling us we should give up our hard won cash to support those billionaires who'd gone one gamble to far. Why? 'stability' says President Bush whilst Obama and McCain look on silently praying Mammon that such stability can be bought before their term starts ..."
That's got to be pretty close?
Re:Yes, but this wasn't a prep piece (Score:5, Insightful)
What makes you think the dialogue and details were faked rather than scripted? I mean, in a country with no free speech, you can tell your astronauts precisely what they are going to say and do. It makes writing the press announcements ahead of time quite reasonable. If someone deviates, you kill them. It discourages the rest. Really, it's all quite efficient.
Re:What's next, a fake moon walk? (Score:5, Funny)
That's far too reasonable. Surely China is simply preparing for it's fake moon landing program, to show it's just as advanced as the US in fake space programs. Eveyrone knows the moon landings were really filmed in a soundstage on Mars!
Re:What's next, a fake moon walk? (Score:5, Interesting)
even though i think China crossed the line here, i have to point out that comparing similar incidences/practices is not delusional at all. Chinese media writing the news before it happens can be compared with US media writing the news before it happens.
besides, the whole purpose of the comparison is to show people like yourself and the GP that China and the U.S. aren't as different as you think. the U.S. isn't as morally righteous and incorruptible as most nationalistic Americans claim. no society is perfect, just as no society is completely bad.
believe it or not, Chinese people are human beings too, just as we are. because of that, we share many of the same flaws and make many of the same mistakes. you two act like we're talking about a different species or something. what, you don't think America could ever have anything in common with China?
the Cold War is over buddy. grow up.
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Chinese media writing the news before it happens can be compared with US media writing the news before it happens.
No it can't, because the state doesn't own the media in the US.
Re:What's next, a fake moon walk? (Score:5, Insightful)
i happen to be ethnically Chinese (1.5th generation immigrant from Taiwan), and i can tell you that you're still missing the point--and making a complete ass of yourself.
the U.S. has nothing in common with China?
let's see, China has a market economy, and so does the U.S. ...
China has an army, navy, air force, police force and fire fighters, as does the U.S.
China has McDonalds--hrmm... i think the U.S. has that too.
China has hosted the Olympics, and what a coincidence, so has the U.S.
China exports tons of weapons, just as the U.S. does.
China has ratified the Kyoto Protocol, and so has--oh wait, nope, you're right about that one.
but neither China nor the U.S. recognize Taiwan as an independent country.*
China imports a shit ton of oil each year, so does the U.S.
Chinese government leaders are corrupt, so are U.S. leaders.
China has nationalists and dissidents, so does the U.S.
China has a privileged elite and a disenfranchised poor, so does the U.S.
China has membership in the IMF, just as the U.S. does.
China has a stock market, just as the U.S. does.
and you're accusing other people of being deluded?
*-being Taiwanese and my Dad being very pro-Taiwanese independence, i was raised to despise China. but even i wouldn't make such blatant hyperboles and blanket generalizations about China.
as i said, grow up. and learn to stop viewing the world in black & whites.
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In the past few food safety scandals, the Chinese officials in charge have either been executed or they resigned.
So despite what the West likes to say about China, there is some form of accountability, it's not one of those simple Evil Dictatorships.
And there actually are elections in China[1], sure there is only one party, but hey how much choice do the US voters actually have in practice? I believe in the US they even have laws and systems that favour the Two Parties over the "Other Parties".
[1] http://en [wikipedia.org]
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Where we the United States fall short in scale, it is only through lack of means, not lack of will. For a tip-of-the-iceberg set of examples: Abu Ghraib, the Phillipine-American war, our machinations in Latin America, our overthrow of the government of Iran (and we wonder why they hate us?), internment of Japanese-Americans during the Second World War...I could go on and on, but the point, I believe has been made. To what degree that the world has been affected by the actions of the United States vs. the ac
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I love America and all, but if you think we haven't as a nation committed genocide then you've not read back far enough in our history.
From death marches to reservations thousands of miles away from their homelands to intentionally trading them blankets from smallpox and tuberculosis patients, the Indians have quite a moral claim against the US government. Most of them now have either mainstreamed themselves into our society or seem fairly content with schools, casinos, a distinct lack of sales taxes, and b
Re:What's next, a fake moon walk? (Score:4, Funny)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2989459.stm [bbc.co.uk]
Re:What's next, a fake moon walk? (Score:5, Funny)
They are going to hire Michael Jackson to train their astronauts to avoid that problem.
I can't wait. (Score:5, Funny)
It looks like we'll be seeing $2 time machines imported from China any day now....
Re:I can't wait. (Score:5, Funny)
And tomorrow they'll announce (Score:2)
the invention of a time machine.
Re:And tomorrow they'll announce (Score:5, Funny)
You didn't get the memo?
That announcement was yesterday.
Re:And tomorrow they'll announce (Score:5, Funny)
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That is what you get for traveling so much in your TARDIS.
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What are you talking about, they announced that last week!
Funny stuff. (Score:2)
Re:Funny stuff. (Score:5, Funny)
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Have you SEEN that 900 lbs of rock?
All I've seen is pebbles sealed in plastic.
>.>
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Also leaked (Score:5, Funny)
Shenzhou 11: Base this is Shenzhou 11. Shenzhou has landed. Jesus H. Christ Base, We're on the fucking moon. Over.
Base: Roger, Shenzhou, we copy you. We cannot believe you are on the fucking moon. Repeat: Cannot fucking believe it. Over.
Re:Also leaked (Score:5, Funny)
Sounds like the narration of one of those horrible 80s space pornos.
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Re:Also leaked (Score:5, Funny)
"Did these people go to a regular journalism school, or some kind of Bizarro-world journalism school where they teach a combination of news writing and creative writing?"
Close, they got internships at Fox Networks.
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Sounds like the narration of one of those horrible 80s space pornos.
Space Pornos?
This is relevant to my interests.
The proper Homer Simpson quote (Score:4, Funny)
No, no, you should have said "Your ideas are intriguing and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter" [google.com]
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Heh. Gotta love the dialogue in the article, though -- one line:
Sounds like the narration of one of those horrible 80s space pornos.
Can you say, "Space: 1999"?
Re:Also leaked (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Also leaked (Score:5, Funny)
Take your melamine pills and put your helmet on
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Tell Chairman Mao I love him very much, he knoooowowowwws...
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Timezone thing? (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah, but because of timezones, it's already tomorrow over there, right?
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TFA says,
The arcticle, dated two days from now on Sept. 27, vividly described the rocket in flight, complete with a sharply detailed dialogue between the three astronauts.
But they said it would be open and honest (Score:4, Insightful)
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well, at least now the astronauts know what to say when they get into space.
In other news, steve jobs is dead (Score:4, Insightful)
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They do with popular people's death announcement.
They don't involve publishing 'live' transcripts of future events.
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Sometimes they do: ;-)
http://www.break.com/index/dana_carvey_snl_gerald_ford_is_dead.html [break.com]
The Fine Arcticle (Score:2)
From TFA:
The arcticle, dated two days from now on Sept. 27, vividly described the rocket in flight, complete with a sharply detailed dialogue between the three astronauts.
I suggest that henceforth stories written before the events they report shall henceforth be known as "arcticles". The backinition (reverse-derived defintion, a la "backronym") will be it is a merging of archive + article.
An anarcticle is reserved for an article that actually traveled back in time (anachronism + article).
But really so chosen to immortalize this typo, just like filk and pron before.
Re:In other news, steve jobs is dead (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah, I'd be surprised if Xinhua hadn't written both success and failure [wikisource.org] stories weeks ago.
Seriously, people — it's a common gaffe, not an evil Communist plot.
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Re:In other news, steve jobs is dead (Score:4, Informative)
Such conversations are often scripted. Armstrong's "one small step", for instance, was scripted before they ever left Earth.
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A failure story? From a dictatorship's state-run newspaper? I doubt it.
1) the rocket explodes
2) there was no rocket
3) no step three, either
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No, it's common to write a story ahead of time (though probably not with dialogue, as others have noted). The gaffe which occured is actually publishing it ahead of time; this is not such a common thing.
I do agree however that it's not likely to be an evil Communist plot, or a plot of any sort, other than a simple gaffe.
Yeah... I think I remember that one... (Score:2)
http://img206.imageshack.us/img206/8362/bscap007mq8.jpg [imageshack.us]
What was it again? Wrong copy went to print by accident or...?
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The usual (Score:2, Funny)
Don't they celebrate the new year before that happens too?
I figure that's what's happening here.
Not really news, happens all the time, everywhere. (Score:4, Informative)
It isn't that uncommon for Press Releases announcing the success of an event to be drafted before the event takes place.
Sure, fabricating the actual dialogue ahead of time is shadier than most.. but really what they're doing isn't THAT different from what we do in America every day. It's only garnering attention because it was leaked, but I can't imagine that anyone who says they're shocked by this isn't feigning that shock.
You could just as easily be just as shocked at a Presidential candidate accidentally releasing both a victory speech and a concession speech before knowing the outcome of an election. It's not really news, it's just humorous that it was posted (way) too prematurely.
How many people are honestly surprised at this?
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Re:Not really news, happens all the time, everywhe (Score:5, Informative)
Actually, newspapers print extracts from speeches politicians haven't yet given all the time - because they're scripted days in advance and, these days, intentionally provided to the press.
If you look at the 'dialog' in the story it's really nothing of the sort. It's canned phrases. Just like, as someone already noted, "One small step..." So there's obviously some phrases that it is known will be used during a successful launch, so the journalist can take a short cut in writing a story about it...
All major news outlets have pre-written obituaries for just about every major celebrity who's vaguely within range of snuffing it. Every few months there's a 'controversy' when one of 'em gets mistakenly published. I don't really see any difference to that...
DEWEY WINS! (Score:3, Insightful)
"You could just as easily be just as shocked at a Presidential candidate accidentally releasing both a victory speech and a concession speech before knowing the outcome of an election. It's not really news, it's just humorous that it was posted (way) too prematurely."
Only if it included the exact vote totals.
Yes, the dialogue inclusion is the particularly bad part about this. And it coming from a place that is known to censor things it does not like, lie about what it does, and generally be evil. IN isolati
Re:Not really news, happens all the time, everywhe (Score:2)
It sure is -- it's not like the US had scripted dialogue prepared before the moon landing! That would just be over the top.
Although, knowing us and our study habits, even if we had bothered to prepare lines, the astronaut would probably have just flubbed them.
Video (Score:3, Funny)
I'm not sure I believe the video either.
It's not funny (Score:3, Insightful)
If they're lying about their success (and yes, even if the mission turns out to be a success, they're still lying by announcing it early) then what else are they lying about?
For all we know dozens of taikonauts have died or been wounded in the making of China's space program.
They wouldn't tell us if it was the case.
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Next they'll be saying that Tibet has WMD (Score:2, Funny)
..and they have the ability to launch them within 45 minutes.
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Next they'll be announcing that Tibet has launched Nuclear Weapons next year, justifying their invasion yesterday.
Of course by the time the rest of the world figures out what the hell this actually means the conflict will be over.
Brought to you by the Ministry of Truth (Score:2, Funny)
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It's just the pre-script... (Score:2)
Of what the Chinese astronauts are supposed to say, including their emotional state and excitement. Those clever Chinese, they can't leave anything to chance after all!
Wait, was it "One small step for A man?" or "One small step for man?" Dang I forget...
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It was:
"One small step for shzt man"
Hey. (Score:2)
China didn't fake the fireworks, NBC did.
Hah - Oblig All your Base (Score:4, Funny)
Pilot: Somebody set up us the bomb.
Ground Control: We get signal.
Pilot: What !
Ground Control: Main screen turn on.
Pilot: It's you !!
Technician: How are you gentlemen !!
Technician: All your base are belong to us.
Pathetic summary (Score:3, Informative)
"After faking their fireworks?"
Please.
All the fireworks were real. The thing you're referring to is a sequence of fireworks that wasn't filmed for television and was replaced by CGI.
The reason that the sequence - a series of giant "footsteps" across parts of Beijing - was not filmed was that it was deemed too dangerous to follow the fireworks with a helicopter and camera.
The fireworks, of course, actually happened, and the stadium coverage of the fireworks were all real. Get your facts straight.
Corrupt yes (Score:4, Informative)
Just because the channel you're watching doesn't tell you the details doesn't mean it's faked.
The Olympics ceremony was all a show. In movies they often have someone else singing instead of the star, in fact they also have body doubles. Given the amount of cheating in the Olympics, I'd cynically say that it's very in line with the real spirit of the games. Put on a good show and hope you don't get caught.
Lastly, while the Chinese are most certainly corrupt, there has been some accountability - the food safety head actually resigned. I believe the one before him was executed - he was found guilty of taking bribes etc.
They most certainly didn't get a USD20 million "golden parachute" package as a reward.
So what? (Score:2)
Looks to me lik
Just... (Score:3, Insightful)
China: It wasn't lies, it was just... bullshit
Won't happen to Google News (Score:4, Funny)
A thought (Score:3, Insightful)
Slashdot is turning into fox news (Score:3, Interesting)
As has already been pointed out, the linked to fireworks slashdot story was already piss poor sensationalism. The fireworks were announced around the world as being CGI. So the entire story basically said "some obviously fake fireworks that were said to be fake when shown were fake". No shit sherlock.
And now we got a story that a news agency accidently released a pre-written story. Not like we never heard of obituraries being printed ahead of time. Anyone who has ever worked in the news industry knows that you prepare AHEAD of time.
Hell, even advertising does this. Or do you think that during events like soccer championships the advertise executives sit glued to the tv screen then the moment the result is in start putting together the add in a matter of hours to be included in tomorrows newspaper celebrating/mourning the match? Hell no, you prepare the ad campaign in advance for all outcomes.
For the uneducated editors of slashdot: Most christmas scenes/photo's etc etc are NOT shot during christmas. They are created in mid summer with FAKE snow.
Most christmas/newyears specials are recorded MONTHS in advance.
A lot of short tv programs with live audiences are recorded back to back on a single day to be aired on different days.
Star Wars was NOT a war documentary on a battle that happened in a galaxy far far away.
More and more reading the summary on slashdot is a joke, the actual story is not in the linked articles but in the comments. Slashdot would improve an awful lot of we could get rid of the editors and make it purely user contributed. Mmm, wait a moment, that is digg. Nevermind.
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Mission? They're actually doing one? Why, they just went to the moon! Didn't you read Veritas?
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The difference between Russia during the Space Race and China now, is that we more than likely have something watching China hard enough that we'd know if there was a failed launch. After all, they have nukes and no one figures they'll be arriving by slowboat should China decide to use them.
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The story about the fireworks can be found here [popularmechanics.com] for those interested BTW.