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Political Cartoons
China's First Spacewalk
By Cartoon: Ares, Caglecartoons.com, The Phillippines
Project: Cynthia Kirkeby
Oct 15, 2008, 19:45 PST

China's First Spacewalk

© Ares, Caglecartoons.com 2008


On Saturday, September 27, 2008, Mission Commander Zhai Zhigang became the first Chinese astronaut to walk in space, representing only the fourth country in history to do so, the others being the USA, Canada and Russia. Zhai Zhigang floated outside the Shenzhou VII spacecraft at 4:43 pm Beijing time (0843 GMT) for 15 minutes, according to the AFP. This milestone was reached on China's third space mission.

Meals aboard the craft have followed a typical Chinese menu, featuring versions of kung pao chicken, shrimp and dried fruit, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.

Questions to Ponder

  • Will China's spacewalk start a new space race with the United States and other Western countries?

  • Do you think that China will beat NASA's projected date of 2020 for returning to the surface of the moon?

  • Will China's next step in space, which is to assemble a space station, put other countries more at risk from attack, or will it be a vehicle towards peaceful scientific exploration?

  • Do you think that China's astronauts benefited from being able to eat traditional Chinese food, rather than the special space food that the US astronauts eat while in space?



Learning Links for China's First Spacewalk



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