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Chinese astronauts make rocket fuel and oxygen in space

(www.livescience.com)
298 points Teever | 5 comments | 24 Aug 25 17:54 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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monster_truck ◴[26 Aug 25 21:17 UTC] No.45032447[source]▶
This is from January, have there been any updates in the past 7 months?

There is exceptionally little material info in this article and so very much speculation

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nashashmi ◴[26 Aug 25 22:17 UTC] No.45033045[source]▶
Apparently it has been in production since 2015. Why is this the first we are hearing about it?
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nosignono ◴[26 Aug 25 22:55 UTC] No.45033343[source]▶
Because English language news sources aren't particularly interested in developing the relationships necessary to report on Chinese scientific breakthroughs. It undermines the prevailing media narrative that China is behind and backwater.

Americans don't like the idea that maybe China is actually rocketing past them technologically and infrastructurally, so news doesn't really report on it much.

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1. kccqzy ◴[27 Aug 25 02:20 UTC] No.45034767[source]▶
The Chinese also aren't the most transparent when it comes to their own technological advances. Certainly much less transparent than NASA.
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2. eunos ◴[27 Aug 25 11:35 UTC] No.45038232[source]▶
Or it is mostly updated in Mandarin and in mostly Chinese-exclusive media ecosystem like WeChat which is not easily indexed and probed.
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3. shayway ◴[27 Aug 25 13:43 UTC] No.45039570[source]▶
That's part of it too, but CNSA really does play its cards much closer to its chest than NASA. It's more in line with the Soviet approach of sharing the minimum information necessary to support a narrative. For example, try to find video of any Long March rocket failure, and literally the only one released is from the 90s and was only released a few years ago.
4. kccqzy ◴[27 Aug 25 15:03 UTC] No.45040692[source]▶
I read mandarin and I use WeChat. It's still less transparent. There are many self-congratulatory press releases without enough technical information. The Chinese haven't realized yet that transparency here is a form of soft power.
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5. eunos ◴[27 Aug 25 20:43 UTC] No.45044973{3}[source]▶
> transparency here is a form of soft power.

I severely doubt that and the ability to form and control narrative is much more important