E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSS
Canadian Space Agency/Chris Hadfield (Cmdr_Hadfield)
The dazzling lights of Shanghai, China, shine in this amazing view from the International Space Station by Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, who shared the image on Feb. 9, 2013, to mark Chinese New Year on Feb. 10.
By Tariq Malik, SPACE.com Managing Editor
An astronaut on the International Space Station beamed festive messages to Earth Saturday to mark Chinese New Year celebrations across the planet.
Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, a space station flight engineer, sent good wishes and amazing photos of China via online Twitter messages to celebrate the Chinese Year of the Snake, which began Sunday, Feb. 10.
"Happy Chinese New Year! May it be filled with joy and success," Hadfield wrote. "To celebrate, we sent a Progress spaceship to burn like fireworks in the sky."
That unmanned Russian Progress 48 spacecraft undocked from the space station early Saturday to clear a parking spot for a new robotic cargo ship, Progress 50, due to arrive at the station on Monday.
Hadfield then posted a series of dazzling photos of China from space, including a view of daybreak over Taiwan, a striking image of Shanghai at night, amazing windswept clouds and a view of the city of Hangzhou.
"Hangzhou, China. As one of the few space-faring nations, I salute China, her astronauts, and their accomplishments," Hadfield wrote.
In 2003, China became the third country (after Russia and the United States) to achieve human spaceflight with the successful launch of its first astronaut, Yang Liwei, aboard the country's Shenzhou spacecraft. The country subsequently took bolder steps into space, with two-person and three-person spaceflights, a spacewalk and the launch of the Tiangong 1 space laboratory module.
In 2012, China launched its first crew to the Tiangong 1 space module, a three-person team that included the country's first female astronaut, Liu Yang.
In 2013, China is expected to launch another crewed mission to the Tiangong 1 space lab (the Shenzhou 10 mission), as well as the Chang'e 3 moon mission, which is expected to send a lander to the lunar surface.
Hadfield is one of six astronauts currently living aboard the International Space Station. In addition to the Canadian, the station's Expedition 34 crew includes three Russian cosmonauts and two American astronauts.
You can follow SPACE.com Managing Editor Tariq Malik on Twitter @tariqjmalik. Follow SPACE.com on Twitter @Spacedotcom. We're also on Facebook & Google+.
Leave a Comment:
That picture shows how things have changed.
I went to Shanghai in 1984 to teach English. The plane came in at night, and what was absolutely shocking is that there were barely any lights, really, nothing at all, as the plane approached. I couldn't figure it out, Shanghai was a huge city....was the airport miles and miles from town? Was there a power outage? I got to my residence (for foreigners) after a surprisingly short car drive, and met a couple of other foreigners (Western and Japanese) who had arrived in the past few days and asked them. They laughed and said, "Welcome to Shanghai. You have stepped into the 1930's". It was amazing how backward the place was, except for a few Soviet inspired structures, virtually nothing had been built since the communist takeover/liberation (depending on your point of view). Lights were few and far between and quite weak.....It is incredible how much the city has changed since then.
The irony is the ISS is really not all that "international" having racistly excluded 1/5 of the world population from participating. Of course it's under the pretext of national security but certainly they could've been given some benign task assisting with something mundane. But instead the chinese are completely excluded, unable to demonstrate any goodwill if they have any and probably they do.
Shri Panch Maharajadiraj Birendra Bir Bikram Shaha Dev sends royal greetings to the Spanish monarch on this auspicious occasion.
Did he really have DOG on the chinese menu ? Hot dog I hope.
Wonder what to eat for the Chinese New Year? A little shark's fin soup, maybe some bird's nest. We took a look at some of the wackier dishes:
Wonder what to eat for the Chinese New Year? A little shark's fin soup, maybe some bird's nest. We took a look at some of the wackier dishes:
Op, op op op op, Oppan China style.
Awesome, never seen Taiwan like that before :) Happy Chinese New Year!