Remembering the Space Age. - Black Vault Radio Network (BVRN)

the Great Leap UpWarD: ChINa’S hUMaN SpaCeFLIGht
prOGraM aND ChINeSe NatIONaL IDeNtItY
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highly impressive. their enthusiasm seems authentic—and no mere invention of
the communist state. In Shannon Lucid’s view, space exploration has developed
into “the foremost symbol” of what the Chinese wish for their society to
become. “right now space exploration is probably more important symbolically
to the Chinese than it is to the american people,” says Lucid. “Of course, it was
symbolically very important to us back in the 1950s and 1960s, because of the
Cold War. It will become more important to americans symbolically in the
future if some other country starts to prove that it is better at it than us.” 11
Lucid, who was born in Shanghai in 1943 to a Christian missionary couple,
has returned to China as an adult no less than three times and expresses her
thoughts about the feelings of the Chinese people about their space program
with greater familiarity of Chinese culture and history than most Westerners:
“the Chinese are very proud of their space program. as a people, they are
very connected to their long history and feel that being a leader in space is
part of their legacy, as the Chinese were the ones to invent rockets centuries
ago.” In 1997, Lucid and fellow U.S. astronaut Jerry ross accepted a Chinese
invitation to attend to an international congress on science fction literature
held in Beijing. “the Chinese were really into science fction,” Lucid recalls.
“I thought at the time, this is what it must have been like in Germany in
the 1920s when so many of their people got caught up in science fction and
an enthusiasm for rockets and space, or in the United States and the Soviet
Union back in the 1950s.” In Lucid’s view, China is a dynamic and dramatically
changing society whose people are very much looking forward to its future:
“When you see Shanghai, wow! It is so modern with all its shops and big new
buildings! It is so modern—absolutely amazing! You think to yourself, ‘this is
a communist country?! there is all this modern building going on, such a great
hustle and bustle. there is such vitality among the Chinese.’” 12
NaSa administrator Grifn returned from the China trip so impressed
by what the Chinese were doing that before long he issued what arguably
will become his most memorable, and certainly controversial, statement. at a
Washington, DC, luncheon at the Mayfower hotel on September 17, 2007,
Grifn remarked that China would likely be on the Moon with human explorers
before the U.S. ever manages it again. What Grifn said precisely—or not very
precisely, at least in terms of his frst sentence—was:
I personally believe that China will be back on the Moon
before we are. I think when that happens,americans will not
like it, but they will just have to not like it. I think we will see,
as we have seen with China’s introductory manned spacefights
11. Lucid to author, transcript, p. 2.
12. Ibid, transcript, pp. 1-3.