File this one under "Go Taikonauts!": China's first manned space flight ended successfully this week as taikonaut (that's the Chinese term for astronaut, by the way) Lt. Col. Yang Liwei landed in the Mongolian steppes without incident after orbiting the earth several times. An interesting footnote to the mission is that Yang reported that he was unable to see the Great Wall of China from space, when asked about it by Chinese media. Quite frequently the Great Wall is reputed to be the only man-made object visible from orbit, although this is really a myth. Very many structures can be seen from space, depending on the height of your orbit; and quite frequently the Great Wall, which despite being thousands of miles long is only a few yards wide, cannot be spotted, even by a biased eye as I'm sure taikonaut Yang's was.

At any rate, China has entered the Space Age. Perhaps this will kick the United States in the pants and get us back on track with our own space program, as Sputnik and the daring exploits of the Soviet Union's cosmonauts did back in the 1950's and 60's. What the Bush Administration wants to spend on the "reconstruction" of Iraq this year could finance NASA at its current budget until 2008. Who knows what we'd be able to do with even more money. Back to the Moon? Finally to Mars? The mind boggles.