Why is the Shenzhou 6 mission getting less attention than Shenzhou 5 from the community of space enthusiasts?
Perhaps one reason is that the Chinese have released a tremendous amount of public information about their space program since Shenzhou 5. The aura of mystery, at first like that of the Russian program in the 1960’s, was dispelled. That makes the whole enterprise less requiring any speculative analysis, less intriguing, and therefore less interesting. It has also become clear that the measured base of the Chinese space program will not replicate the breathless pace of the moon race of the 1960’s, which made manned spaceflight a kind of cosmic-level international sporting event. • Is the Shenzhou a copy of the Soyuz? The Shenzhou spacecraft appears similar to the Russian Soyuz, but is different in dimensions (slightly larger and heavier) and does not seem to use any detailed parts copied from the Soyuz or built under license. Therefore although it follows the classic layout of the Soyuz, adopts many of the same technical solutions, and the re-entry vehicle has the same shape, it cannot
