First China Astronaut Returns Drenched In Blood

Leaked Chinese Lecture

BEIJING — As the nation held its collective breath, China’s first astronaut, Yang Liwei, floated back to the motherland, having orbited Earth 14 times in the Shenzhou 5, or Divine Capsule.

It was October 2003, and the national broadcaster CCTV carried live coverage of the momentous event, from Mr. Yang’s famous pleasantries uttered in space — “I feel good” — to the instant that workers opened the capsule door to reveal the pale but smiling face of a hero, offering irrefutable evidence that China’s maiden manned space voyage had gone off without a hitch.

Or had it?

In a lecture he gave to a group of journalism students last month, a top official at Xinhua, the state news agency, said that the mission was not so picture-perfect. The official, Xia Lin, described how a design flaw had exposed the astronaut to excessive G-force pressure during re-entry, splitting his lip and drenching his face in blood. Startled but undaunted by Mr. Yang’s appearance, the workers quickly mopped up the blood, strapped him back in his seat and shut the door. Then, with the cameras rolling, the cabin door swung open again, revealing an unblemished moment of triumph for all the world to see.

Well here's some more proof that governments lie, as if we didn't know this. I remember a while back a leaked video of a Chinese "space walk" that was shot in their underwater training facility. Business as usual in China it seems....

reply to post by traditionaldrummer


So was it just a split lip (from G force or banging his face on the instrument panel or biting it)? Or was he injured beyond that.

If it was just a bloody lip, I don't really see the problem with trying to make something picture perfect. Judging from the pic, he seems to be ok. I guess we'll never know what his vitals were, I'm sure those will never be released...not sure what to think on this one.

Originally posted by Arcane Demesne
If it was just a bloody lip, I don't really see the problem with trying to make something picture perfect. Judging from the pic, he seems to be ok.

Indeed, he did survive and it wasn't a huge deal. But it's a least two dishonest portrayals of China's space program.

reply to post by traditionaldrummer

I remember a while back a leaked video of a Chinese "space walk" that was shot in their underwater training facility.

TD, it is very possible that the "incriminating" video floating around ( pun ) on YouTube actually DID include footage shot in the underwater training tank...but, I'd suspect that whoever put that together misrepresented it, in order to punk the Chinese.

Here's some verified EVA video, from Shenzhou 7:



Looks genuine, to me. You can see, in the one camera angle, the Earth below (well...'above' in the frame..."up" and "down" become arbitrary in space...). The orbital speed of the spacecraft looks right.

Also, the silly, silly flag waving... THAT should be a crime!!


But, it actually helps to verify the existence of vacuum (or non-existence of water...).

Several times, as he moves the flag, you see it in a direction of motion that IF it had been underwater, would have forced the flag to 'flow' backward, opposite the direction of movement of his arm. It does not.

However, what some people will remain confused by is the relative flag "flapping" motions...which are easily explained by the momentum, and forces of his arm, and wrist, as they hold on to the stick the flag is attached to. It is the motion of the STICK, and the inherent physics of momentum, and inertia, that make the flag appear to "wave".


AS TO the bloodied face? Well...that does sound like a bit of propanganda-munching at work. Minor things like that happened, even in Mercury, Gemini and Apollo.

Meaning...a LOT of difficulties that the Astronauts encountered weren't always made public. Should read "Last Man on the Moon" by Apollo 17 Cmdr. Gene Cernan.

Talks about HIS Gemini EVA, and his difficulties. Almost died.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I haven't kept up withthe Chinese manned space program, 'til now...so, the article OP posted is actually about Shenzhou 5. Here's a brief video montage (there was NO EVA on that mission):




As is usually the case...each mission offers lessons, to build on for the next one.





[edit on 9 June 2010 by weedwhacker]

They could have known he died on reentry so they took his body out, cleaned up the mess, and replaced him with his twin or someone that looked similar to him. Then "WAH LA" China just took a man to space and back. You can't have your first space orbiter die on you? Who will be the national hero and make the mission a success? Better to keep the power and money flowing than to take a huge hit in the PR department forcing you to start from scratch.

Originally posted by weedwhacker

TD, it is very possible that the "incriminating" video floating around ( pun

) on YouTube actually DID include footage shot in the underwater training tank...but, I'd suspect that whoever put that together misrepresented it, in order to punk the Chinese.

Certainly possible. Here's the video I saw:



Someone else took a more detailed approach to declaring China faking it in space:



Who really knows? What seems to be the only verifiably factual thing involving "faking it" in space was cleaning up the bloody astronaut.

And everyone knows the u.s never lies about anything... at least china is stepping up efforts at space exploration at a time when the u.s is abandoning it so that the u.s can afford to continue its illegal wars and support of isreali crimes against humanity.

reply to post by Arcane Demesne


I agree, this thread is much ado about nothing. I think anyone, let alone the astronaut himself, would have wanted to be cleaned up first if they got a bloody lip or nose upon reentry. Maybe there was blood on the face of the helmet too? Of course it is better for all involved if you clean up a bit.

Is it dishonest? No, just favourable PR - and you can't say any other space agency around the world doesn't have PR departments that attempt to cast their lot in a favourable light as much as they can.

What would you say (ok in a rather extreme example) if you were an astronaut, and you physically pissed yourself (or worse) upon reentry, and said substance gathered around inside your helmet and on your face. Would you request to be cleaned up first before being filmed, or be quite happy to be broadcast to the world with sh*t all over yourself? It is a similar thing.



As for the 'leaked' spacewalk footage from underwater...I agree with the other poster. It would not have been leaked, but just broadcast openly onto TV - noone would dare 'leak' footage up onto the Internet in China from such an important agency if it was indeed not allowed to be uploaded, as it is much easier to pinpoint the source of uploading in the country. I bet it was just broadcast as per usual into public domain CCTV, uploaded by someone onto the net, then some smart alec (not being able to understand Chinese) changed the title and intention of the footage.

Cool tough man story though...

" I fell to Earth and only got a split lip"