China/Space Missions

Astronauts into space module

English.news.cn   2013-06-14 09:26:29

Xinhua Weibo Facebook Twitter Reddit Diigo Delicious Digg Linkedin MySpace Sina Weibo Kaixin Renren Q-zone Tencent Weibo Sohu Weibo NetEase Weibo

BEIJING, June 14 (Xinhuanet) -- The three Shenzhou X astronauts moved into the Tiangong-1 space module on Thursday following a successful automatic docking.
The spacecraft completed the docking procedure at 1:18 pm, according to the Beijing Aerospace Control Center.
It is the fifth docking between a Shenzhou spacecraft and the unmanned space module conducted by China.
The control center said Shenzhou X, launched on Tuesday from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Gansu province, began to approach the Tiangong-1 automatically at 10:48 am, making contact with it at 1:11 pm.
The astronauts, sitting in the spacecraft's re-entry capsule, monitored and reported the docking operation to the control center.
After the two spacecraft were locked together and the space module was checked, astronaut Nie Haisheng opened the doors leading to Tiangong-1 with help from fellow astronaut Zhang Xiaoguang.
The three astronauts, clad in blue spacesuits, then floated into the module one by one. They later waved to a camera in the module.
In coming days they will live in the space module, carrying out scientific and technical experiments and giving a lecture to students on Earth, Wu Ping, spokeswoman for the program, said.
There will also be a manual docking between Shenzhou X and the module, although Wu did not give a date for this.
The mission is expected to help scientists verify and improve space rendezvous and docking technology, crucial for assembling an orbiting space station.
Space rendezvous and docking is a technically difficult procedure, with both vessels moving at 28,000 kilometers per hour during the docking, making the maneuver highly risky.
Jiao Weixin,a space scientist at Peking University, said space rendezvous and docking is hard to master. "It is like asking two racing cars to keep a distance of 1 meter between them."
Two automatic dockings between the unmanned Shenzhou VIII and Tiangong-1 were conducted in 2011, and an automatic and manual docking took place between the manned Shenzhou IX and the space module in 2012.
The successful missions saw China become the third country to master the technology, following the United States and Russia.
After the Shenzhou X mission, China will enter the space lab stage, the final stage before it builds a space station around the year 2020.
Qi Faren, former chief designer of the Shenzhou spacecraft, said China needs to master four vital technologies in order to launch the space station.
So far, it has learned how to carry out extravehicular activity, and acquired the space rendezvous and docking technology thanks to the previous missions.
Solving a supply problem and recycling air and water in the space lab for astronauts on long-duration missions remain to be tackled.
Zhou Jianping, chief designer of the manned space program, said in March the Tiangong-2 space lab will be launched in two years, followed by the launch of a space freighter.
The freighter will conduct a fueling experiment with the space lab, which is expected to solve the supply problem.
 (Source: China Daily)

13,000 young volunteers and cultural ambassadors selected to serveUpdated: 2013-06-14 11:55

13,000 young volunteers and cultural ambassadors selected to serveUpdated: 2013-06-14 11:55

 By Li Yao in Nanjing ( China Daily)

Comments Print Mail Large Medium  Small 分享按钮

0

Volunteers of the Asian Youth Games receive training in etiquette in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, on May 28. Song Wenwei / China Daily

Young people in Nanjing are set to play an important role as volunteers, cultural ambassadors and designers at August's Asian Youth Games and next year's Youth Olympic Games.
Since the host city launched a call for volunteers for the Asian Youth Games in October, about 100,000 people have applied. Of these, 13,000 have been selected to serve at the main venues such as the Nanjing Olympic Sports Center and the athletes' village.
The village, located at Nanjing University of Technology, will accommodate some 3,500 athletes and officials from about 45 countries and regions in Asia. To assist foreign guests during the games, the university has 2,000 students under training to act as volunteers, including first-aid workers.
Zhang Qiang, 21, a sophomore majoring in engineering management, joined an emergency response team in April.
During weekends, three experienced paramedics from the Red Cross Society of China's Nanjing branch, trained the team's 60 key members on how to treat patients with bone fractures, knife injuries and heatstroke.
"I learned how to use an oxygen mask in case of fire. I can share this practical knowledge with my family to ensure our own safety," Zhang said.
"It is a rewarding process. I acquired some medical skills, and learned the importance of serving others in needs," he said.
Jiang Zimin, a second-year civil engineering student, has been assigned to provide general help. Volunteers in this group assist athletes and their families navigate the city.
Twice a week Jiang and about 100 team members meet to practice English and polish their skills through role-playing exercises.
"My brother was a volunteer during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and has given me useful suggestions," Jiang said.
He said he is glad to join the team because he made friends with like-minded schoolmates from different schools.
In Nanjing, 45 primary and secondary schools have paired up with counterparts in member countries or regions in Asia under a "heart-to-heart" program aiming to promote cultural and educational exchange among youths from the host city and the delegations to the games.
During the games, a "festival of youth", will be put on in the athletes' village and "Asian cultural cottages" will be used to promote the customs of each Asian country or region.
Xingzhi Primary School, in Pukou, west Nanjing, established ties with the Red Swastika Primary School in Singapore in August 2012.
The Nanjing school set up a Singaporean corner on campus, displayed introductions about the country with bright-colored drawings, and recruited six students as cultural ambassadors who will explain their program to visitors .
The students learn to make simple but memorable souvenirs, such as bookmarks in the shape of orchids, Singapore's national flower.
Fifth-grader Hui Huaijing, 11, wears an Indian sari and tells visitors of Singaporeans of Indian origin. Hui can even paint henna tattoos, a body art using paste made from the henna plant.
Xie Hanyan, 29, is an English teacher at the school. She helps the six ambassadors improve their language skills because they will relocate to the Singaporean Corner at the athletes' village during the games.
"Students showed great interest in participating in these activities. The Singaporean Corner will be kept after the games, as the school will have stronger ties with Singapore," she said.
The School of Design at the Nanjing University of Arts has a studio authorized by the Youth Olympic Games' organizing committee in Nanjing. The studio encourages young people to design posters, emblems and slogans for the Youth Olympic Games.
The design school hopes to exhibit students' works during the Youth Olympic Games next year and display their talents to a wider audience, said Wu Lieyan, deputy dean of the design school.
Dong Siyan, 26, came to work at the studio earlier this year. She said she is familiarizing herself with the job, and she saw many students who are ready to contribute ideas for the games.
liyao@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 06/14/2013 page4)

US should 'explain hacking activity'Updated: 2013-06-14 08:11

US should 'explain hacking activity'Updated: 2013-06-14 08:11

 By Cheng Guangjin in Beijing and Kahon Chan in Hong Kong ( China Daily)

Comments Print Mail Large Medium  Small 分享按钮

0

The United States owes China an explanation about its hacking activities and should show more sincerity in the future when engaging in cybersecurity cooperation between the two countries, experts in Beijing said.
Washington is now in an awkward position regarding its cybersecurity dispute with Beijing, following revelations by whistle-blower Edward Snowden that the US has been hacking into computers in China for years, Jia Xiudong, a senior researcher of US studies at the China Institute of International Studies, said on Thursday.
Snowden, 29, a technician transferred by a private contractor to a US National Security Agency base in Hawaii, told a Hong Kong newspaper on Wednesday that the NSA had been hacking into computers in Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland since 2009. He has been taking refuge in Hong Kong since May 20.
None of the documents revealed any information about Chinese military systems, he said in an interview with the South China Morning Post.
Jia said what Snowden has exposed fully demonstrates that the US has a double standard on cybersecurity, and "its accusation about China is hypocritical and without evidence".
"When it comes to cybersecurity, what the two countries should do is cooperate and resolve their differences and conflicts through dialogue," Jia said.
China and the US have been engaging in a cybersecurity dispute for months, with the US accusing China of cyberattacks.
At a meeting in California last week, US President Barack Obama pushed President Xi Jinping to do more to address online theft of US intellectual and other property coming from China.

Snowden said he believed there had been more than 61,000 NSA hacking operations globally, with hundreds of targets in Hong Kong and on the mainland.
The targets in Hong Kong include Chinese University of Hong Kong, public officials, businesses and students in the city, according to Snowden.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying reiterated at a news conference on Thursday that China has been one of the major victims of cyberattacks. "China strongly advocates cybersecurity," she said.
She also stressed China's position that the international community should have constructive cooperation on maintaining peace, security and cooperation in cyberspace.
Snowden leaked information to the media about PRISM, a top-secret program that collects and analyzes data from Internet users around the world. The leak has led to heated debate about privacy and civil liberty in the US.
General Keith Alexander, NSA chief and chief of US Cyber Command, told Congress on Wednesday that information collected by once-secret US surveillance programs has disrupted dozens of terrorist attacks, The Associated Press reported.
Alexander insisted that the public needs to know more about how the top-secret programs operate amid increasing unease about rampant government snooping and fears that citizens' civil liberties are being trampled.
When asked whether the US had approached China about Snowden's extradition and what Beijing's reaction would be if he applied for asylum in Hong Kong, Hua Chunying said she "has no information to offer".
Snowden said, "I have had many opportunities to flee Hong Kong, but I would rather stay and fight the United States government in the courts, because I have faith in Hong Kong's rule of law."
According to AP, US law enforcement officials are building a case against him but have yet to bring charges.
Huang Feng, an expert on international criminal law with Beijing Normal University, said the US is fully aware that it's not in an advantageous position to ask for Snowden to be sent back under its agreement with Hong Kong.
"What Snowden has done, according to US law, will fall under offences of betraying state secrets or treason. Neither of these is listed as a crime that can be used for turning over a fugitive," Huang said.
The Hong Kong government said on Thursday that it has received no report of data loss due to hacking of computer systems.
Contact the writers at chengguangjin@chinadaily.com.cn and kahon@chinadailyhk.com

(China Daily 06/14/2013 page1)

news from Xinhua China

US FBI chief defends surveillance programs

Updated: 2013-06-14 07:10

( Xinhua)

Comments Print Mail Large Medium  Small

WASHINGTON - The Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Robert Mueller on Thursday defended the classified phone and internet surveillance programs, which sparked controversy in the past week, and vowed to hold the leaker responsible for the disclosure.
Speaking at a hearing before the US House Judiciary Committee, Mueller said the disclosures about these secret surveillance programs have caused "significant harm to our nation and to our safety."

FBI Director Robert Mueller testifies before the House Judiciary Committee hearing on Federal Bureau of Investigation oversight on Capitol Hill in Washington, June 13, 2013. [Photo/Agencies]

Mueller said the terrorists are consistently looking for ways to have secure communications, and the intelligence system can not afford losing the ability to get the terrorists' communications.
"We are going to be exceptionally vulnerable," he said.
He even suggested that if the surveillance programs had been in place before the Sept 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, they might have helped yield evidence of connections of the participants and derail the plan.
"If we had this program that opportunity would have been there," said Mueller.
Two classified National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance programs, one collecting US phone records and the other mining internet data, were revealed last week after leaks from the 29-year-old defense contractor Edward Snowden.
"As to the individual who has admitted to making these disclosures, he is the subject of an ongoing criminal investigation," said Mueller. While pledging that the FBI is "taking all necessary steps to hold the person responsible for these disclosures," Mueller declined to comment publicly on the details of the ongoing investigation.
US President Barack Obama and other officials of the US intelligence community have stressed that the congressional, executive and judicial levels provided oversight over these surveillance programs.
Obama also insisted that the tracking of internet activity had not applied to US citizens or people living in the country.
According to the Guardian and the Washington Post reports last Thursday, the NSA and the FBI had been secretly tapping directly into the central servers of nine US internet companies, extracting audio, video, photographs, e-mails, documents and connection logs that enable analysts to track a person's movements and contacts over time.
The technology companies that participated in the programs reportedly include Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube and Apple.
Google and other major Internet companies denied news reports that they have given the NSA direct access to their servers to mine users' data and asked the government to disclose more details about the national security requests for their users' data.

Convicted U.S. spy Christopher Boyce: 'Snowden is doomed'

By Peter Shadbolt, CNN

June 14, 2013 -- Updated 1026 GMT (1826 HKT)

Christopher Boyce, left, was jailed for 40 years in 1977 for espionage. He says he pities Snowden.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Former spy and fugitive Christopher Boyce sold U.S. state secrets to the Soviets in the 1970s
• On the run for two years, he was eventually arrested and jailed for 40 years for espionage
• Out on parole in 2003 after serving 25 years, he is currently writing his memoirs
• He says NSA leaker Edward Snowden is 'doomed' and has entered a world where he can trust no one

Editor's note: Convicted spy Christopher Boyce was jailed for 40 years for espionage in 1977 after selling U.S. secrets to the Soviet Union. In 1985, his story was turned into a Hollywood film -- "The Falcon and the Snowman" - starring Sean Penn and Timothy Hutton. Released in 2003, Boyce is currently working on his memoirs "The Falcon and The Snowman: American Sons."

(CNN) -- Sitting alone in a hotel room, unable to contact friends or family or even walk the teeming streets of Hong Kong without looking over his shoulder, there can be few who can claim to know the fear and isolation that NSA leaker Edward Snowden is living through.

One man, however, is better qualified than most.

Former spy, fugitive and convicted traitor, Christopher Boyce sold U.S. secrets to the former Soviet Union and dodged U.S. authorities for almost two years until his arrest in 1977 at the age of just 22.

Young, idealistic and driven by a mixture of political conviction and outlaw excitement, Boyce eventually received a 40-year sentence for espionage. In 1980, he escaped from the federal penitentiary in Lompoc, California and, while on the run, carried out a string of bank robberies in Idaho and Washington state -- crimes for which he says he carries a greater weight of remorse than for those of espionage.

Released on parole in 2003 after serving 25 years, Boyce now lives on America's West Coast and is working on his memoirs -- "The Falcon and The Snowman: American Sons" -- scheduled for release this year.

NSA defends surveillance

While Edward Snowden's leaks allege that U.S. intelligence has been hacking networks around the world for years, the NSA's stated position is that the administration, Congress and the courts are all aware of and have oversight of the NSA programs exposed by Snowden. NSA has also rejected his claims they can tap into the phone or computer of any U.S. citizen, saying that legally obtained phone records have helped to thwart "dozens" of terrorist events.

In it he outlines how, in 1974, a clean-cut college kid -- the son of a respected former FBI agent -- lands a job at aerospace and defense firm TRW in Southern California where he sees misrouted Central Intelligence Agency cables that allegedly discuss destabilizing the Australian government -- then led by the center-left government of Gough Whitlam.

Whitlam's government was famously and controversially deposed in 1975 in what some argue amounted to a constitutional coup d'etat. The then governor-general, the British queen's representative in Australia, Sir John Kerr -- who occupied a largely ceremonial office -- invoked the rarely-used queen's reserve powers to fire a democratically elected government to resolve a long-standing political deadlock in the country.

According to accounts by Boyce, the governor-general was casually referred to in CIA circles as "our man, Kerr."

Only a few years earlier, Australia had been a key U.S. ally in the Vietnam War and Whitlam's government had already raised ire in Washington by withdrawing Australian troops within hours of taking office in 1972.

By 1975, the Whitlam government was asking uncomfortable questions about key U.S. military installations based in Australia and Boyce claims that the CIA had the Whitlam government firmly in its sights.

Appalled that the U.S. secret services would use its powers of surveillance and secret influence to depose the government of a U.S. ally, Boyce teamed up with a childhood friend -- Andrew Daulton Lee -- and embarked on a journey that made them one of the Cold War's most infamous spy teams.

The slow descent of the two former altar boys into a world of mistrust, madness and cold isolation was turned into a Hollywood hit for Sean Penn and Timothy Hutton, who starred in the 1985 movie "The Falcon and The Snowman."

Inside the mind of Edward Snowden

Trump: Snowden is bad news

Snowden: U.S. hacked targets in China

While 35 years separate his ill-starred foray into espionage and Snowden's decision to reveal the secret surveillance plans of the National Security Agency (NSA), Boyce told CNN he has a good idea what Snowden might be going through.

"I feel for the guy, and for what his life is going to become. I pity him," Boyce said.

"He's in for a world of hurt, for the rest of his life. I feel sorry for him. He's going to go through life not being able to trust anybody. And I think that in the end, it'll end badly for him -- one way or another, they'll get their hands on him. He's going to pay for it. He's doomed."

In one of only a handful of interviews Boyce has given since his arrest in 1977, he told CNN this week about his own motivations three decades ago and what Snowden is likely to face psychologically now he is pitted against the world's most powerful secret service.

CNN: When you see Snowden on the television, do you immediately recognize your situation in it?

Christopher Boyce: The major difference between Snowden and myself is that I didn't come out publicly with my information. Also, my motives were different. I was sworn to revenge. It certainly was a far different time and place. Up to that point in my life, my view of the (U.S.) Federal Government was that it had only gotten worse.

I grew up in a different time -- watching the Kennedy assassination, watching the race riots on television, and watching the U.S. government slide into the Vietnam War -- which was, to me, just about the most idiotic, stupid, evil exercise of power my country had ever pulled off.

I went to work as a contractor for the NSA, like Snowden, and what I discovered on the "twixes" (telex messages that were sent back and forth from U.S.-based CIA locations and CIA outposts in Australia) showed that we were undermining the government of Australia, an ally nation.

I don't know if Snowden views the U.S. government in the same way that I did -- maybe he does. He's uncovered things and made things public that sound, to me, as if they're illegal. Things that show the NSA and the CIA are lying to Congress. Perhaps in a way it is similar. But what Snowden has done is much different. My aim was to hurt the United States government. I suppose he's doing that too, but in a public way. Yet he's not as underhanded about it as I was.

CNN: In the light of his situation, what do you think he could be going through?

One way or another, they'll get their hands on him. He's going to pay for it. He's doomed
Christopher Boyce

Boyce: I think he's scared to death. I think that every single person he sees, he's wondering if that's the person that's coming for him. He's probably worried that there is a large group of people in Washington, D.C., trying to come up with some way of getting back at him, to get control of him, to lock him up for the rest of his life.

I don't know if he has an arrangement with the Chinese government. If he doesn't, I would be worried that the Chinese may deport him to the United States to gain some concession in return. I'd be terrified of that, if I were him. Who would trust the Chinese government? He is utterly vulnerable and knows that there are a lot of people who really want to hurt him now. If I were him, I would at this point probably be having second thoughts. Asking myself "What did I do? What have I brought down upon my head? Did I really do this?"

The fact is, he can never come back home.

He's totally separated from everything he has ever known, from his family. He is always going to be a fugitive, until they get him. And eventually, they will. He will never see his family again unless they go to him. And if they do go to him, he'll no longer be in hiding. The only way that he can truly hide is to abandon his whole past, his entire life.

When he realizes that, he's going to be racked with depression. I would imagine that his stress levels are at a point where they could actually make him physically sick. I'm sure everything is gnawing at him. And he's isolated. If I were him, I'd latch onto a couple of reporters that I trusted. He has a lot of enemies now. He has the whole intelligence community of the United States after him, including all of its allies. I sure as hell wouldn't trust the Chinese government, if I were him.

CNN: At what point, in your case, did you realize there was no going back? Were you fully aware, at the time, of the scope and depth of the trouble you would be in?

Boyce: I realized immediately that there was no stepping back, that I was doomed, and that my life would never go back to the way it was before. I was surrounded by an impending sense of doom, knowing this was something that could not end well. I imagine he will probably start drinking heavily. That's what I did. Think of it: How much bigger trouble can you possibly get into? How could you make more enemies, more people who would like to kill you, than by doing what he has done? He's got to be having second thoughts about it. He has to go someplace where he's safe, and I don't know if China is it.

CNN: To what extent were you motivated ideologically and to what extent were you motivated by the excitement of being an outlaw? In your opinion, how much ego is involved in the whistleblower's mindset?

I imagine he will probably start drinking heavily. That's what I did. Think of it: How much bigger trouble can you possibly get into?
Christopher Boyce

Boyce: Edward Snowden is 29. I was 21. At that age, I felt indestructible. Nothing bad could ever happen to me, or so I thought. You just don't think about these things when you're young. You believe that bad things happen to other people. But you learn, after a while, that that's not true.

My view of the government at the time was that it was just a monstrosity that was getting worse and worse. I didn't like it. I was motivated to hurt the government. I was nuts. I thought I was going to wage a one-man war against the Federal Government and that I was going to make them pay for all the rotten things they had done and were still doing.

Ego played a great part in that -- having my own secrets, being in the know of something, getting (one) over on the bastards. It's an all-empowering feeling, in a somewhat demented way. But what you're really doing is just walking into a buzz-saw. It certainly was exciting. I'm sure Snowden feels a similar excitement. But that excitement, after a while, is not a good excitement -- it becomes terror.

CNN: Considering the minimal amount of damage the information that you sold to the Soviet Union caused, do you think your sentence was out of all proportion with the crime you committed? There is a sense with these whistleblower cases that the leaker has stepped into a zone where normal laws no longer apply. Do you think the secret services are more interested in exacting revenge in the cases of Assange and Manning than in protecting the interests of the state they serve?

Boyce: Regarding my sentence for espionage, I don't know if the punishment was disproportionate. That's for someone else to decide. Of course, I'm a bit prejudiced on that. I certainly think they decided to make an example out of me. There were very few espionage arrests before I was arrested. People never went to court -- the government didn't want these things brought out. In my situation, however, they decided to make an example. And then I escaped from Lompoc federal penitentiary for 19 months. And then I decided to rob some banks. I can say that the sentence I was given for bank robbery was certainly just.

Do I think the government wants revenge against Snowden? Absolutely, they want revenge. They want to ensure anyone who even thinks about doing what he did does so with fear in their hearts.

With respect to these agencies wanting to protect the interests of the states they serve, I ask this question: Is it in the interest of the United States and the American people to have billions of their communications secretly monitored by a government? And to have Congress lied to about it? I don't think that's in the interest of the American people. Is the interest of the United States government the same as the interest of the American people? Not always. Not in this situation, anyway.

Of course, there's still a lot that has to be played out. But I think that revenge is the key driving force by those individuals who stand to get into a heap of trouble as a result of these secrets being made public -- the big shot bureaucrats in the national intelligence community. Not that it's in the interest of the American people to be kept in the dark about it, but simply because of the repercussions those individuals behind the scenes could face. They could be retired early, or lose their pensions, or be disgraced, or be hauled in front of Senate subcommittees, or all manner of bad things. I'm sure there are many things the NSA and CIA don't want the public to know about, principally because the players behind the scenes could get into serious trouble if it became known.

Manus Island/Media is not permitted

Not a single journalist has been allowed into the controversial Manus Island detention centre in Papua New Guinea since it reopened to Australian refugees nine months ago.

SBS Dateline's Mark Davis tries to change that and uncover what the Australian Government is hiding behind the security fence.

In exclusive interviews with detention centre guards and an inmate, Mark learns of attempted suicides and self-harm among the desperate asylum seekers.
"They go crazy, they start cutting themselves and trying to hang themselves," one guard tells Mark after agreeing to speak anonymously.
One of the reasons, it emerges for the first time, is that there hasn't been a single processing interview to assess their claims since the centre opened last August.

But in trying to gain access, Mark has to contend with having his footage deleted by the authorities, a bugged car and endless bureaucracy.
The Australian Government insists that it's Papua New Guinea preventing journalists from seeing the detention centre for themselves, but PNG Prime Minister Peter O'Neill tells a different story.
“We have allowed every visitor in our country to go to any part of the country if they so desire, so there’s no restrictions on our part,” O’Neill says. “I can assure you that you are free to go to Manus any time you want.”