"Ed Majden" wrote in message news:Lfgjb.103719$6C4.38239@pd7tw1no...
"Gene Storey" wrote in message

Looks like a complete copy of the Soviet space program, down to the
pressure suit, and the name "cosmonaut." How can they go wrong?

The American space efforts were not necessarily done on their own
either.

True, but nobody has said it was. We took advantage of the talents of
a lot of folks who came over here--which in and of itself is a pretty
good talent of the US.

I think Mr. Newton should be given some credit along with Mr. Von
Braun and his crew. Canadian born Jim Chamberlin chief designer of the
CF-105 AVRO Arrow was basically the guy that designed the Gemini space
craft.

Canadian born, yes--but a US citizen from the early sixties, as were
Von Braun and crew. Which makes them Americans in the truest sense of
the word. And to be completely honest, Chamberlin was the Gemini
project manager, not "the designer", and moved from that post in 1963
because of budgeting problems within his purview, and possibly some
personal conflicts (he reportedly was not a "people person", to say
the least). That does not take away from his substantial contributions
to Mercury, Gemini, and even the Apollo programs (he also did some
early work on the shuttle).

He was one of a number of AVRO Canada engineers that headed south to
work for NASA after the sad cancellation of the Arrow project. See:
http://www.exn.ca/Stories/1999/07/06/64.asp Scientific efforts are build of
the shoulders of scientists of many nations, not just one. I think the
Chinese should be congratulated! I only hope their efforts are peaceful
ones and not cold war one-up-man-ship as was the case in the past.

I am much more impressed by the Chinese effort to compete in the
commercial launch business than I am in this
reminiscent-of-the-early-sixties propoganda ploy.If they were really
interested in scientific advances, they would continue with their
launch business and join the ISS effort, instead of repeating the
feats of others forty years after the fact.

Brooks