taikonaut!!

albertw

I'm sure that translates to astronaut or cosmonaut, I'm too tired to go on a dungeon crawl through the chinese dictionary!

Anyway, China has long planned to send a man/woman/comrade into space and this plan could become reality by the end of October.

The Shenzhou (long march?) rocket will carry one taikonaut, though I think the capsule is capable of carrying 3 people.

Rocketry is of course nothing new in China, and their space program has been active nearly as long as the Peoples Republic.

http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994169

Cheers,
~Al

DEmeant0r

I'll have a check before I go to sleep tonight, is it in cantonese or mandarin?

crowbar

astronaut is tai hoong yun in cantonese. taikanaut sounds like an english bastardisation of 'astronaut'.
in cantonese slang this also refers to the parents of children who study in one place, but their parents live in another and fly in and out to visit their kids.

DEmeant0r

I've never heard that being used in Hong kong before...

SKWei

The "naut" part is just the same as in astronaut or cosmonaut. Tai is from Tai kong, meaning space. Just like that!

DEmeant0r

I thought Space was Tai hung, or are you talking about mandarin?

albertw

The launch of the manned rocket is likley to take place over the next few days, stay tuned to any Chinese satellite news channels you have!

Increasingly these days the news media is returning to cold war stances. Though interestingly its the Chinese side thats sounding more open and friendly this itme (IMO) eg:
One chinese source:
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/zhuanti/Zhuanti_367.shtml
US based globalsecurity.com:
http://globalsecurity.org/org/news/2003/031013-china-space02.htm
http://globalsecurity.org/org/news/2003/031013-china-space01.htm

Best wishes to the China Space Agency on the impending historic occasion of the first Chinese manned mission!

Cheers,
~Al

DEmeant0r

I think Sky News has coverage has it not?

X4

Shenzhou = Divine Ship

Long March = Changzheng

;-p