CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- By all accounts China's long-anticipated first manned spaceflight remains targeted for launch in November, but U.S. astronaut Michael Foale -- who should be in command of the International Space Station (ISS) by then -- said he isn't expecting any guests.
"But I am learning some Chinese though," said Foale, a veteran of five spaceflights including a stint on the Russian space station Mir. "(Saying) 'welcome aboard' would be very special... but of course there are no plans for the Chinese to dock with us."
China has already launched four of their Shenzhou spacecraft on test flights, the most recent on Dec. 29. Following that flight, state-run media in China began reporting the next launch would feature a small crew and be sent into orbit during the Fall.
More recent reports suggest the launch will take place in November and the crew size could range between one and three, depending on which story you read and how it's translated. China is training a total of 14 fighter pilots for astronaut duty, according to the reports.
When it happens the flight will put China in the record books as only the third nation to launch humans into space. The former Soviet Union was first with Yuri Gagarin in April 1961, followed by the U.S. in May of that year with Alan Shepard.
"I think it's a tremendously potential historical event that may overlap my mission and I'm already thinking about it," said Foale, who suggested others within the nation better start contemplating what that will mean as well. "We should only take it positively and not see it any way as a threat."
Foale, Russian cosmonaut Alexander Kaleri and European Space Agency astronaut Pedro Duque are scheduled to blast off toward the ISS from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on Oct. 18, riding atop a Soyuz booster.
Flying inside the Soyuz TMA-3 spacecraft, the trio is to dock two days later at the frontier outpost, where Foale and Kaleri will remain on board for six months. Duque will spend a week at the ISS and then board the Soyuz TMA-2 spacecraft to return home, taking with him the Expedition Seven crew of Ed Lu and Yuri Malenchenko.
Although there are no firm plans for cooperating with the Chinese in space, their independent presence in space could ignite renewed interest and debate in returning humans to the Moon and sending crews to Mars.
"Everybody needs to understand, the Chinese included, that working together is a very powerful opportunity for us," Foale said of a potential partnership. "If we don't feel threatened by it, and just get into a space race akin to the one we had with the Soviet Union, I think we can do something very, very constructive with it."
"That vast and huge nation, with great human resource, will be a potentially enormous player in the future human exploration of space," Foale said.
Kaleri, Foale's cosmonaut colleague, said he agrees with the suggestion that China should work with the other international partners on space activities.
"Maybe, who knows," Kaleri said. "Time will tell."
And so it could come to pass that this November the Expedition Eight crew will be awakened one day by Mission Control with the news that they aren't the only humans in space.
While Foale works on his quote in Chinese, Kaleri said he will probably say something like this:
"I would to congratulate them with this achievement and to tell them welcome to new environment, welcome to space, welcome to cosmos."
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