TLiaW: Dawn of the Dragon

Introduction
“To those who have spent decades watching the rise of China’s modern economy into a near-match for economic power of the United States or the European Union, the fact that it should possess one of the world’s most impressive space programs is of little surprise. If the Japanese, possessing an economy a mere third the size of any of the others, should be capable of launching spacecraft to Space Station Freedom, then it is little surprise that China might do far more. However, it was not always so obvious that the Chinese space program would experience the successes it has--certainly it was not seen as a rival when the Americans first landed on the moon, nor was its program always as well-funded as it is today. The politics behind the Chinese government’s development of its space program as a showpiece for the nation’s general investment in industrial development are well-established in other sources, but less attention has been paid to the unsung heroes who turned Standing Committee commandments and proclamations into reality over the decades. The development of the Chinese space program, though its expansion to match those of the West seems almost preordained in retrospect, must be remembered to have sprung from roots that were anything but solid: often underfunded, technologically inferior, and thoroughly ramshackle. This work will seek to explore the program’s humble beginnings and expose the true feats inherent in the modern program’s rise into one of the world leaders in spaceflight.”--Dragonrise: The Chinese Space Program from Birth to the Moon

Oh no. It’s happening?

Oh yeah, it’s happening.

You actually think you can pull off a Timeline in a While?

Well, that’s a long story. This was originally going to be a TLiaM, then I decided to pre-write the first couple posts. Now it’s mostly written, and I’ve been sitting on it long enough. So I’m posting it, but I’m not sure exactly how long I’ll take to do so.

Cute. You know one of the major things you succeeded on with Eyes was trying to make the political development of spaceflight plausible?

Yeah, so what’s your point?

You know darn little about any of those highly significant details in Chinese politics, and that the period where this all starts is rather...turbulent.

Yeah, I know, which is why this is going to be heavily focused on the rockets and spacecraft. I did a lot of politics in Eyes, and I just want to write about the fun stuff.

Hooo boy. Well, these should be interesting times…

That’s the hope!
 
Interesting. I was just reading a book on JPL's founding, and of course, there was the story of Qian Xuesen in there, and how his treatment by the US government actually caused him to exile himself to Communist China, and helped start their rocket and Space program
 
Excellent!

I must say, if you have any sources on what Qian Xuesen/Ch'ien Hsüeh-sên did in China, I'd love to hear about them. From what I've read, the man's career in China was even more distinguished than his American career, and that's saying something!

fasquardon
 
Red China having a more advanced space program could create another wave of Yellow Peril, though this time I doubt it'll lead to the use of Agent Orange. And orange you glad I didn't say banana? :D

(Also, subscribed.)
 
At this point, we don't know whether this is a massively divergent ATL going back to the 60s or even 50s, or whether it picks up much later. The limited scope implied in "A While" might suggest a very recent divergence that slips a little bit into future history. A

fter all, while it has been a commonplace of science fiction and perhaps international diplomacy since the late 70s that China is big enough to do anything it wants to do, it was only in the later 80s and 90s that the scale of industrial development seemed good for much more than maintaining a second rate (though massive) military machine (and being the major manufacturer of cut-rate and simple but reliable and relatively cheap weapons for third world nations especially isolated ones like Iran); only in the 90s were Chinese produced high-tech goods starting to flood global markets.

The PRC could surely have done a lot more in space had it been a regime priority before 1980, but it would have cost them a lot of their highest end talent (in opportunity costs). Qian could surely have done more if he had been given more; the question is would any PRC regime prioritize it? After 1980 and especially after 1990, the resources, especially trained engineers, were much more abundant, along with cash flow to more or less painlessly finance it.

Again the question is "why?" from the CPC's point of view. As time goes on, the answer "why not?" would seem less and less impertinent!:D

I can see Mao giving it a green light on a whim; the problem is he is just as likely to call a sudden halt, on another whim. And I think that's the capsule history of the PRC space program from 1949 until his death. Either something has to convince Mao Zedong that the People's Republic needs a more vigorous space program (in which case I am sure amazing resources would be forthcoming, and yet not bankrupt the regime--I believe the laws of economics are somewhat different for Marxist-Leninist regimes as long as they are generally viewed as legitimate and successful by their peoples) or someone needs to somehow check his power or move him out of the way, or it all has to wait until his death and some time after. Still, it is all too depressing for me to reflect how ancient and quaint the once-to-me futuristic date of 1980 has become, how much water has flowed under the bridges since then.:eek: Plenty of time between then and now to have quite a space program, indeed time enough to have children and grandchildren. Like I say--eeek!
 
Interesting. I was just reading a book on JPL's founding, and of course, there was the story of Qian Xuesen in there, and how his treatment by the US government actually caused him to exile himself to Communist China, and helped start their rocket and Space program
Yeah, it's interesting reading--the ways in which it does and doesn't sound like the American, Soviet, and European programs, and the ways it drew on the experiences of those programs--both IOTL and in the stuff I have in store. :)

Excellent!

I must say, if you have any sources on what Qian Xuesen/Ch'ien Hsüeh-sên did in China, I'd love to hear about them. From what I've read, the man's career in China was even more distinguished than his American career, and that's saying something!
I'll flat out say this: I could have done a ton more research in the writing of this timeline, on the politics, on the people in the programs, on the budget that went to military programs and military carrier rockets and that which went for manned missions. If this were being written to Eyes' level, then I might have done a lot more of that research. I might do more reading on it later--as you say it's really fascinating, though complicated by the closed-off nature of China (a lot of the same issues as the Soviet program there). But I was also looking for a fun project, so I'll be playing fast and loose with a lot of political, cultural, and personnel-level details and focusing on the broader arc I wanted to explore. Be warned: this is for fun! Cite this TL as factual evidence of anything at your own risk!

...This is highly silly Yes!

At this point, we don't know whether this is a massively divergent ATL going back to the 60s or even 50s, or whether it picks up much later. The limited scope implied in "A While" might suggest a very recent divergence that slips a little bit into future history.
Well, we'll get to the PoD in the post I'm putting up next, and that should answer some questions.

The PRC could surely have done a lot more in space had it been a regime priority before 1980, but it would have cost them a lot of their highest end talent (in opportunity costs)....Again the question is "why?" from the CPC's point of view. As time goes on, the answer "why not?" would seem less and less impertinent!:D
Interesting questions, and a source of lot of China's stop-and-start space program IOTL. However, that sounds like politics. And I just mentioned this TL's policy on politics. :)

Red China having a more advanced space program could create another wave of Yellow Peril, though this time I doubt it'll lead to the use of Agent Orange. And orange you glad I didn't say banana? :D (Also, subscribed.)
Interesting speculation, but that sounds like a cultural point, and you know TTL's culture around cultural aspects! However, it also sounds like an orphaned terrible pun, and on that aspect I'm always game. (And thanks!)

On that note, I'd like to thank the Brainbin, Workable Goblin, and Nixonshead for help in developing ideas for this project and in proof-reading earlier drafts. Any remaining errors are either my own or intentional. My internal bold-text would like to distance itself from this work. And on the note of the draft...
 
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Part 1: Humble Beginnings
Part 1: Humble Beginnings

The earliest roots of the modern Chinese space program could hardly be further from their present state. In 1966, the Chinese were already in the process of developing a native ballistic missile and carrier-rocket program as part of Mao’s “two walking legs” towards an independent ICBM deterrent: one leg would depend on Soviet imported technology, while the other leg would build up to a native Chinese capacity. In 1966, this program was joined by a call to develop a recoverable satellite system. This system, in turn, could be used for both manned and unmanned applications, such as satellite reconnaissance. Once the spacecraft was flying, the same bus or other busses using similar technology could be used for other satellite applications like weather forecasting and communications. While in the United States engineers working on Apollo benefitted from incredible resources and public interest (even if support was far more ambiguous than later popular histories might suggest), Chinese engineers working under Chief Designer Wang Xiji were far less lucky. Indeed, they could only count their blessings that the spacecraft program--like that of ballistic missile development--was largely exempted from worst excesses of the Cultural Revolution, spared direct oversight by the Red Guard. However, while the engineers labored on laying out the specifications for the first Chinese recoverable spacecraft, their colleagues in other fields faced trials and persecution which echoed the worst of the French Revolution, aimed directly at the nation’s class of engineers, scientists, and academics. [1]

From the safe distance of history, the trials endured during the development of Chinese recoverable spacecraft during the height of the Cultural Revolution have acquired an aura of legend. Some facts, like the incredibly low-tech nature of the project, have become so oft-repeated that their real hardships are forgotten. However, looking back, it’s almost astounding that the development of recoverable spacecraft succeeded. In spite of the suspicion directed towards academics, researchers, engineers, and scientists, the project moved forward in the face of adversity. The work was intensely manual, with engineers working with slide rules in an office equipped with (initially) only a single telephone. The designers followed twin tracks based on the same capsule-shaped bus. One, Fanhui Shi Weixing (“Recoverable Satellite”), was equipped with cameras and film storage to act as a basic spy satellite. The other, Shuguang (“Dawn”), was to fill the space with controls, seats, improved parachutes, and a crew. Both were aimed for introduction in the early 70s, using nearly identical carrier rocket derivatives of the Dongfeng-5 ICBM. The mass limits were tight--unlike the behemoth of the American Saturn V, Chinese engineers’ calculations indicated that Dongfeng-5’s carrier rocket variants could be expected to launch only a few tons. With these tight mass limits in mind, engineers sketched out the specifications for Shuguang and FSW to mass under two and a half metric tons, weighing crew capacity, capsule layout, launch vehicle integration, and more in an atmosphere of paranoia where a single accidental failure could be taken as grounds for a purge of the entire team.

By 1970, certainly more in spite of the ambient political conditions than because of them, Shuguang and FSW had proceeded into detailed design. With computational power available to the project in short supply, the geometry was naturally simple: a familiar 10 degree cone. Because of the mass limits, the capsule was on a scale more along the lines of Voskhod and Gemini than the 30-ton Apollo or the 7-ton Soyuz, and with its side-by-side seating of two crew, the design bore a striking resemblance to Gemini in particular. The only major difference in external appearance to the untrained eye was Shuguang’s “tractor-type” escape tower, with many other dimensions and design features being similar. For decades, rumors that this resemblance was owed to more than simple convergent evolution circulated in the space community, in spite of official quashing of such assertions by the Chinese government. It would eventually emerge that the design of Shuguang (and FSW) did draw to a certain extent on the basic geometry of Gemini’s 10-degree blunt conic capsule, though for reasons more complex than simple espionage. Design details were not directly stolen, but were instead used to define the overall trade space, since the American system was proof that some realizable possibilities existed. This “inspiration” saved research and development, modeling, and trade studies which the Chinese engineers lacked time, facilities, and resources to carry out.

However the project made it to the point of a “frozen” design, 1970 would prove a banner year for Chinese spaceflight. In April, the Chinese launched their first artificial satellite, Dong Fang Hong-1, becoming only the fifth nation to do so. In the celebrations of this feat, Chairman Mao for the first time announced China’s intent to launch a manned space mission within four years. Compared to the superpowers’ achievements, such as the landings of Apollo on the lunar surface, it was a modest goal. On the other hand, at the same time the greatest industrial nations of Western Europe were struggling to organize a fledgling joint space program to simply achieve orbit. The European Launcher Development Organization was experiencing a rash of failures of their Europa 1 and 2 launch vehicles, and the British had actually abandoned active support of the project. Meanwhile, China’s population retained a majority of rural peasants, and yet it asserted it would launch its own astronauts within four years [2]. It is little wonder that the nations of the world paid the boast scant attention.

[1] Such as this work has a specific point of departure, this is going to be it. IOTL, the spacecraft program came to essentially a two-year halt, largely as a result of “Project 571,” an alleged attempted coup by Lin Biao with a clever codename that’s a homophone for “armed uprising” in Chinese. IOTL, in a twist that’s an excellent example of “too ASB to be fake,” Shuguang was Project 714, which is a homophone for “armed revolt.” This coincidence combined with close association with Biao resulted in a heavy focus on the project and purges of many engineers and staff for almost two years. The lost time and lack of progress, combined with insufficient funding, eventually lead to the project’s cancellation. The PoD here is essentially that with a different project number and assorted handwaves of internal Chinese politics, that doesn’t happen.

[2] The use of "astronaut" throughout this work is not an error. Because of butterflies, the word is never coined--Chinese releases for English ITTL simply use “astronaut” as they did initially IOTL.
 
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So it would seem that in the later Mao years, with the POD of avoiding a purely coincidentally unfortunate project number, the program slips through on the luck that Mao's whims don't go negative on them and indeed he adds another favorable one, the boast of a space station. IIRC, that was actually OTL too, despite his having already purged the actual program, so I would not put too much weight on it. I'm sure Wang Xiji and his subordinates are tiptoeing, avoiding making any waves, and would never dare to try to hold the Leader to his perhaps offhand promises. But in the dark of night, I suppose they cling to the hope that having mentioned a space station, he is not going to risk simply shutting down the only program he has that might realize one, and this helps keep them going through adversity. (As does the consideration that, living on shoestrings and perhaps sometimes eating them as they are, if any of them gets disgruntled and quits, they could easily land in a far worse circumstance. It's space work after all, and may pay off in glory).

So that's an approach to politics I hadn't thought of; Mao just basically sets them going and forgets about them for the most part. Since you don't want to get mired in Chinese politics, I suppose the regime will evolve more or less exactly as OTL, so they just have to deliver some sort of structure that can be called a space station over the next half decade. Doubtless such successes would tend to reinforce their position, giving some insulation against whims of Red Guard types. Then eventually a much more technocratic faction will come to power and stay there.

I don't suppose one should expect substantial improvement in the rocket launcher before that, but I am looking forward to a bigger orbital capacity than 2.5 tons! I know some people think the Gusmobile was the bee's knees, but this is a less capable version of it, not more. They need a little more--say 5 tons. It would be very interesting to see what sort of things could be done with just that.
 

Archibald

Banned
Cool, shuguang avoiding cancellation. I wonder how far will the ATL Chinese space program be in 2015.

I toyed with (but finally abandonned) an advanced chinese program in my space TL by accidentally landing a bunch of Soyuz (and Zond lunar ships) in China; they then reverse-enginered them. Imagine a reverse-enginereed Zond making a lunar flyby for the PRC 30th birthday, in October 1979 :p
 
So it would seem that in the later Mao years, with the POD of avoiding a purely coincidentally unfortunate project number, the program slips through on the luck that Mao's whims don't go negative on them and indeed he adds another favorable one, the boast of a space station.
The rest of your post is pretty much dead on my intent, but I did want to note his boast was a manned space mission, not a manned space station in the next half decade.
 
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Part 2: Taking Flight
Well, that was some fun downtime. Everyone enjoy it? Me too. Here's the post that was going to go up today, and now is almost going up tomorrow. I hope you enjoy this, too!

Part 2: Taking Flight

The first launches of the modern Chinese space program came in 1972, with the first tests of the Feng Bao 1 rocket and the the first launch of an FSW capsule, used to begin testing of recovery systems and many of the shared avionics. As testing proceeded, followed closely by intelligence services around the world, China quietly worked on the selection and training of their first crews--a process notable for a heavy focus on political reliability and military service, compared to the preparations of the Americans to land a geologist on the moon on Apollo 18. The Dongfeng-derived carrier rockets and FSW encountered their share of teething issues: two back-to-back failures, one of the launcher and one of the unmanned spacecraft’s communications systems, caused intense worry among Chinese engineer before the first successful flight of FSW in August. However, one success wasn’t enough to erase the problem: engineers in China were under their own equivalent of Apollo’s famous “before this decade is out” deadline in the form of Mao’s four year goal for an orbital manned spaceflight. Mixed in with other launches for testing FSW were what Western intelligence agents failed to identify as Shuguang orbital tests. The Shuguang tractor abort tower was to prove its worth over Gemini’s ejection seats: in the second flight of the capsule, the abort tower successfully carried the unmanned capsule away from the disintegrating stack and fireball when the rocket engine’s turbopump disintegrated due to foreign object debris. In a way, this “successful failure” only augmented the political pressure on their engineers--hadn’t the flight proved that the capsule could save the crew from a failing rocket?

With just three additional capsule tests under their belt, autumn 1973 saw a command come down from the highest levels, one that smacked of valuing propaganda over human lives: engineers were pressured into approving Shuguang for flight to meet Mao’s deadline, which over the years had gone from somewhat arbitrary and aspirational to critical thanks to repetition and paranoia. Worse for the threadbare program, word had come down from no less than Chairman Mao himself that the program could expect no further funding increases without proven success, declaring that while demonstrating Chinese industrial might was important, the nation still must take care of its terrestrial problems first. Even with eight years of solid preparations, Chinese engineers internally estimated chances of a successful first manned flight in late 1973 at as little as three in four, but with internal pressure rising, there was no other option but to make the attempt.

After a frantic round of last-minute preparations, Shuguang 1 lifted off into the history books on October 14, 1973. Only one of the two seats was filled, and as the Long March 2’s engines ignited, pilot Fang Guojun was pressed back into his acceleration couch by the rocket’s power. Though roughly comparable in payload to the American Titan II, the Long March experienced far higher acceleration before burnout, subjecting Fang to as many as 5 Gs before stage separation, then almost 8 Gs during the second stage. FOr the final portion of the burn, the flight plan required the main engine to shut down entirely, with the burn completed on the comparatively weak vernier engines--to do otherwise would have required a paralyzing 13 Gs. [1] Even this level of force was impressive. As the stage vibrated below him and the second stage pushed towards main engine cutout, China’s first astronaut struggled as his vision narrowed, then suddenly the weight dropped to almost nothing for nearly another four minutes. Fang would later comment to ground engineers that, "It went from seeming like I might not survive to seeming as though I might not make orbit before I fell back." The shutdown of the second stage's engine was tense--a failure of this protocol could be deadly. As the moments passed on the expected vernier burn without a word from Fang, many engineers on the ground feared that they had witnessed the deaths of the pilot, the Chinese space program, and quite possibly themselves. However, a few interminable moments later, Fang adjusted to the dramatically lower acceleration and his voice came over the communications links. His first words, blinking to clear his vision, were bleary remarks on the beauty of the Earth seen through the window below: “I feel as though I am awakening to a dream of the world spread beneath.” However, over the long minutes of the terminal vernier burn, he had time to settle himself and begin verifying the capsule’s performance: systems were under control, the stack was stable, and the trajectory was within the acceptable error. When the vernier engines completed their long, slow burn and the second stage shut off entirely, China was, officially, the third nation to send a man to space. One orbit later, Shuguang 1’s retrorockets fired to return it under parachutes to a landing-bag-assisted recovery, and Fang Guojon was greeted with tremendous honors, including medals and a personal meeting with the Chairman.

It is largely true that the success of Shuguang 1 and the prestige it gained China on the world stage as an equal of other industrial powers was significant, and a factor in the ongoing support of the Chinese space program by high level officials on the Standing Committee. However, what is often lost in most popular histories and in Chinese official narratives is that the level of this support was much more tentative in the years initially following Shuguang 1 than it would later grow to reach. While Fang Guojon became a national hero, and the success of the pilot and the engineers who had achieved the flight was much lauded in propaganda, the actual increases in Shuguang’s budgets were small, enough to enable ongoing Shuguang flights in the coming years and the beginnings of the long term planning which would later result in so much more, but not to actually begin such large projects. While the Chinese had achieved one goal which had eluded every nation save the superpowers, actually matching the United States or the Soviet Union would take far longer…

[1] Didn't this used to say something different? Yeah, it did, nice catch. Also nice catch to Shevek23, who found a critical fact in Long March's second stage function I'd overlooked: this whole business of cutting off the main engine and using the weaker verniers to complete the burn without hitting 13G. Before he linked me to this data, I thought they were actually proposing to hit those G levels. Call it a Critical Research Failure.
So, did you do any research for this TL beyond reading Astronautix?
Hey! I did...some. I also read wired, and I did a couple excel spreadsheets. That's at least two more excel spreadsheets than I bet more electoral TLiaW authors do!
Wonderful. It's no wonder you've never won a Turtledove...
I never claimed this would be scholarly! Anyway, the original text of this post and footnote are below:

Original text said:
Though roughly comparable in payload to the American Titan II, the Long March experienced far higher acceleration before burnout, subjecting Fang to as many as 13 Gs. [1] China’s first astronaut struggled as his vision narrowed. His heart pounded, his vision whited out, and he nearly lost consciousness. As the capsule entered orbit under programmed control and separated from the second stage without a word from Fang, many engineers on the ground feared that they had witnessed the deaths of the pilot, the Chinese space program, and quite possibly themselves. However, a few interminable moments later, Fang roused himself and his voice came over the communications links. His first words, blinking to clear his vision, were bleary remarks on the beauty of the Earth seen through the window below: “I feel as though I am awakening to a dream of the world spread beneath.” However, within minutes, he had regained himself enough to begin verifying the capsule’s performance: systems were under control, the capsule was stable, and the orbit was within the acceptable error. China was, officially, the third nation to send a man to space.
Original Footnote 1 said:
[1] What!? 13 Gs? Are they insane!? Yeah, I know, right? But that's what the numbers work out for a capsule on a 2-stage Long March 2/Feng Bao 1. I looked around a lot, though admittedly not any kind of scholarly search, just looking at other pages on Shuguang and Long March variants. I couldn't find any indication of the ~70% throttle-down capacity it'd take to reduce that to a reasonable level, nor of a third stage which would serve to ballast the ride (and maybe add a smidgen more LEO payload). But it's not completely impossible they hoped to just get by with it--13 Gs is high enough even many G-trained pilots will struggle to retain consciousness, but below the really serious health limits as far as I could find. With no better data, I went with the vision of Shuguang on Long March everyone seems to be aware of.
 
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Nice to see this going up! It's been gestating for a while, but it seems neither Cultural Revolution nor balky AH servers can keep a good Dragon down :)
 
Nice to see this going up! It's been gestating for a while, but it seems neither Cultural Revolution nor balky AH servers can keep a good Dragon down :)
Thanks! It's really good to be getting it off the back burner, considering I came up with the basic idea about two years ago and first started writing it about three months ago. :eek:
 
13G! :eek:

IIRC the only times that a crew was subjected to a greater G-Load IOTL were during the 1975 Soyuz 7K-T No.39 In-Flight Abort and Soyuz 7K-ST No. 16L On-The-Pad Abort. And those loads imposed were for a much shorter time. Seconds at most.

Back to topic though. Given the Long March 2's reliability and vicious conditions imposed on its crew, I feel that they'll be looking at getting it to work consistently, and find a way to lower the Peak G-Force. Something tells me they'd want the 3rd stage for this goal, not least as it's an easy enough way to eke out a bit more payload.
 
13G! :eek:

IIRC the only times that a crew was subjected to a greater G-Load IOTL were during the 1975 Soyuz 7K-T No.39 In-Flight Abort and Soyuz 7K-ST No. 16L On-The-Pad Abort. And those loads imposed were for a much shorter time. Seconds at most.
Like I said, it's a shocking number to me too, but it's a survivable one. The period from when the acceleration passes 7 G to burnout peak of 13 G is only about 25 seconds, with only about 4-5 seconds over 10 Gs. That's below injury limits, though they'll have to screen more strictly for heart defects and the like. Fang won't be the only Chinese astronaut to pass out, though.

Back to topic though. Given the Long March 2's reliability and vicious conditions imposed on its crew, I feel that they'll be looking at getting it to work consistently, and find a way to lower the Peak G-Force. Something tells me they'd want the 3rd stage for this goal, not least as it's an easy enough way to eke out a bit more payload.
To limit the Gs to below 6 Gs for the whole flight, you'd need to develop a third stage about the size of Astris, add another staging event, and spend another minute or two in powered flight. Developing that could flat out double Shuguang's cost, and might blow the whole schedule. You imagine telling Mao "We need to spend twice the money and we still can't meet your deadlines" and "We'll need to screen for the best and healthiest pilots" and one of those seems a lot more likely to fly. It's not the NASA answer, but it might be the Chinese one.
 
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To limit the Gs to below 6 Gs for the whole flight, you'd need to develop a third stage about the size of Astris, add another staging event, and spend another minute or two in powered flight. Developing that could flat out double Shuguang's cost, and might blow the whole schedule. You imagine telling Mao "We need to spend twice the money and we still can't meet your deadlines" and "We'll need to screen for the best and healthiest pilots" and one of those seems a lot more likely to fly. It's not the NASA answer, but it might be the Chinese one.

Which is to me why NASA and the USSR went for some of their best pilots with their early spaceflights, having more on-hand experience with conditions close enough to what the early Vostok/Voskhod/Mercury/Gemini missions involved.

And my suspicion was that the reliability of the Long March 2 is what they'd work on first.
 
SUBBED!!!!:D

Chinese Space Tls, even PRC, are always a good read and enjoyable!

Eagerly awaiting next update!:)
Thanks! I hope to have the next update up tonight. In the meantime, here's some artwork that Concured has been working on to help illustrate the timeline:

2M9vz7H.png
 
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