Product Description

This book is designed for publication straight after the launch of China?s first manned spacecraft. The precursor mission, Shenzhou, flew unmanned in November 1999, in line with the predictions of ?The Chinese Space Programme - from Conception to Future Capabilities (1998) - the first edition of this retitled book. The East is Red will build on the 1998 title to take account of the first manned flight, which, it is assumed, will take place sometime over 2003-2004. It will also bring the reader up to date with other developments in the Chinese space programme over from 1998 to the manned flight and look forward to China?s future plans and ambitions.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #287138 in Books
• Published on: 2004-07-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 349 pages

Review

From the reviews:

"...China's Space Program is perhaps the best single-volume summary of Chinese space efforts, at least among those written in English."

--Jeff Foust, THE SPACE REVIEW

Astronomy (February 2005)

Review by James Oberg, Former NASA Mission Controller

"… Harvey’s book gives any space-flight enthusiast a thorough overview of China’s space activities while comparing them to other nations’ efforts. What’s more, Harvey has succeeded in an even greater challenge: collecting disorganized and unrelated information and formulating it into coherent chapters that address themes, activities, and intentions in a lucid, logical sequence. This book goes well beyond cataloging what it covers. It has good stories, too. Harvey’s description of the early years of the Chinese program, when it was bedeviled by material shortages and political interference, is as dramatic as any other space-development saga in the world. He also makes excellent use of new biographical material about the father of the Chinese space program, Tsien Hsue Shen. … Harvey achieves a good blend of engineering descriptions and human-interest stories. Equally important, he gives the reader helpful guidance regarding reliability by describing how information on the Chinese program comes to light while other material concerning it remains buried in secrecy. Finally, Harvey uses obscure Chinese reports and speeches to map out the future options for this nation, now a major player in outer space. … China may well come to dominate some phases of human space exploration in the years ahead. If that comes to pass, this book will have told you how it happened."

"A super book by any measure. Anyone with an interest in rockets will find it a treat and similar in lay out and text as Patrick Moore’s Yearbook. 10 out of 10." (Tony O’ Connell, Astronomy & Space, May, 2005)

"An important book and essential reading for those interested in space history, the history of technology, and the current state of military and civilian space technologies. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers; lower-division undergraduates through professionals." (A.M. Strauss, CHOICE, Vol. 42 (5), January, 2005)

"Harvey’s book gives any space-flight enthusiast a thorough overview of China’s space activities while comparing them to other nation’s efforts. What’s more, Harvey has succeeded in an even greater challenge: collecting disorganized and unrelated information and formulating it into coherent chapters that address themes, activities, and intentions in a lucid, logical sequence. This book goes well beyond cataloging what it covers. It has good stories, too. … Harvey achieves a good blend of engineering descriptions … . Equally important, he gives the reader helpful guidance … ." (James Oberg, Astronomy, October, 2003)

"This is an expanded and revised version of a book first published in 1998 … . It is a well-written, detailed and impressive tale … ." (Paul Murdin, Times Higher Education Supplement, March, 2005)

"The original edition of this book was published in 1998 under a slightly different title … . Each chapter concludes with a summary and suggested further reading. There is also a listing of Chinese satellite launches, a chronology of significant events, a glossary, and a bibliography. All in all, this is probably the best one-stop source of information on the Chinese space programme to appear to date." (Liftoff, Issue 229, September/October, 2005)

About the Author

Author of ‘Race into space - the Soviet space programme’ (1988), ‘The new Russian space programme’ (1994), ‘Russia in space - the failed frontier?’ (2001), ‘Two roads into space - the Japanese and Indian space programmes’ (1998), ‘The Chinese space programme - from conception to future capabilities’ (1997), ‘The Chinese space programme - from conception to manned spaceflight’ (2004), ‘Europe’s space programme’ (2003), ‘Two roads to the moon’ (with Dave Shayler)(forthcoming), ‘Russian planetary exploration’ (forthcoming), ‘Latest in space 2007’ (forthcoming), all Praxis titles. Writer on articles on spaceflight for Astronomy Now, Orbit, Spaceflight, Journal of the British Interplanetary Society (JBIS), Space Chronicle, Astronomy & Space, Sunday Press, Quest, Irish Independent. Broadcaster for RTE, BBC (Radio 4, World Service), Canadian Broadcasting.

Customer Reviews

The New Kid on the Space Block
For those in the West with little overall knowlwdge of the Chinese space effort, this is the primer. The book provides a fun read through the preperations and efforts to launch the first Chinese human to space orbit. Brian Harvey provides very useful insight to those who are looking globally in the human quest for space access. The book provides hope that the third nation to launch humans to space will mature and take serious the rhetoric of building a space station, or better yet, a Chinese program to put humans on the Moon. Harvey's book would have been made better with utilization of color photos splashed about the book.

Red dragon in orbit
China is clearly one of the space players in this century. Her resources are ample, both regarding technical knowhow and intellectual power, there is an unfailing sense of the ultimate goal - manned presence outside the Earth, and the intermediate goals - using the space for earthly purposes, are well understood. The Chinese space programme dates from the fifties, when the US, to their ultimate regret, evicted one of the fine minds who, at that time, was busy pioneering American astronautics. Political unrest - to say the least - on and off threatened to derail the development of missile technology, launchers and satellite technology. The space leaders come through as steadfast in the turmoil of the times, and as the political leadership in China moved from revolutionary fervour onto controlled economic evolution, so the space programme has moved more steadily tovards orderly development. All this and more are presented in this book, which bears the Harvey hallmark of being well researched, lucidly expositioned and showing deep insight in the subject at hand. I read it as one reads a novel of suspence and mystery, it now occupies a honored place along my other reference litterature on space.
When, during the coming years, we await new Chinese exploits in space, we need the understanding put forth in this book on the Chinese approach to development. Harvey illustrates how, in face of adversities, the Chinese space leaders, like the proverbial turtle, contrive to move slowly but inexorably towards their goals, when the hares in and of the United States fritters away resources by jumping hither and yon. It may well be that the tortoise yet overtakes the hare, if not in a race to the surface of the Moon, then to the sands of Mars.

impressive advances in an extended long march
China is still a developing country. But it has the distinction of being only the third country to launch a human into space, after Russia and the US. Harvey tells of the arduous path that China took. There have been the driving forces of international prestige and the building of a credible nuclear deterrent. The latter has required the ability to launch missiles into space in a controlled manner.

Harvey has conducted impressive research into a subject still heavily shrouded in secrecy. He describes many successes made by the Chinese. But also failures. Though the reader should remember that Russia and America have had their share of disasters, including the loss of lives.

The text also shows that in recent years, the Chinese space program has increasingly turned to commercial applications. Notably satellite imaging of the earth and communications. This reflects China's massive growth, with the increased need for such tasks as better analysis of weather patterns for agriculture. Also, the space program has started to perform more scientific research. All of this is a good sign for the future, both for China and the rest of the world.