Did you know that China’s space program had a huge impact on the 2008 Summer Olympics?  Much of the same technology that went in to launching their rockets and putting humans in to space was used to produce the opening ceremony.  Check it out!

Believe it or not, there is a ton of space technology being used at the 2008 Olympics.

To start things off there were no fewer than 3 astronauts that carried the Olympic torch through its 85,000 mile journey, which happens to be more than 3 orbits around the Earth’s equator! In St. Peterberg, Russia cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova who was the first woman to ever fly in space took the torch. Two weeks later Malaysia’s first citizen in space, Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor was honored with the flame, followed by Yang Liwei who was China’s first taikonaut.

Think the 2008 Olympic opening ceremony was cool? There was a heavy use of China’s own space program within it. The cauldron that was lifted over the stadium which currently has the Olympic flame burning was put through the same wind tunnel test that China uses to help design spacecraft. The flame itself? It’s being maintained by similar engine control systems that have been used on China’s spacecraft. The same goes for the master control which uses the Shen-zoo 4000, the same control system thats used for China’s rocket missions.

And don’t think that China is stopping there. They are targeting manned missions to the moon in 2024, which is only 5 years after the 2019 return of NASA to the moon. And for those of you keeping track: Yeah, that’s a 47 year delay for the U.S.

For more information or to join in on the conversation join us live every Friday morning at 2:00am Coordinated Universal Time, or download additional podcasts like this one on the SpaceVidcast YouTube channel or in High Definition on iTunes.