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China Launches Space Lab to America the Beautiful

Broadcaster blunders at Tiangong-1 launch

By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff

Posted Sep 30, 2011 3:35 AM CDT

(Newser) – Weird. China took its first step toward building a space station last night and while the launch of the unmanned Tiangong-1 space lab went smoothly, there was a major slip-up in the propaganda department. State broadcaster CCTV's launch coverage included an animation of the module docking with a crew capsule—to the tune of America the Beautiful, the Guardian reports.

"I don't know how to answer your question," a spokesman for CCTV's propaganda department said when asked why the American patriotic tune was chosen. "I cannot help you." China plans to send up another unmanned module to dock with the Tiangong lab later this year and if the mission is successful, manned missions will follow in 2012.

A Long March-2FT1 carrier rocket loaded with the Tiangong-1 unmanned space lab module blasts off from the launch pad at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China.
A Long March-2FT1 carrier rocket loaded with the Tiangong-1 unmanned space lab module blasts off from the launch pad at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China.   (AP Photo/Xinhua, Wang Jianmin)
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 19 comments
DontLikeYou
Sep 30, 2011 9:30 PM CDT
Suck it China. :) JK... congrats.
truesoy
Sep 30, 2011 6:12 PM CDT
Do they know something we don't know?
tinsguy
Sep 30, 2011 2:13 PM CDT
http://www.nasa.gov/missions/highlights/schedule.html for those of you who are too stupid to recognize that we still have a space program. 
 

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