Chinese Space Walk Filmed in Water, Say Chinese Bloggers

A Chinese astronaut exits the spacecraft. Intercepted image

Virtually every eyeball in China was on the launch of Chinese spacecraft Shenzhou VII, just as the Chinese regime wanted. But among those eyeballs were many observant ones—maybe too observant for the Chinese Communist Party’s liking.

Chinese state-run media called the Shenzhou VII mission “a historic moment.” However, online bloggers have pointed out physics-defying phenomena in the news footage of its space walk that suggest the whole operation was filmed not in space, but under water.

As soon as China Central Television (CCTV) broadcast “live” footage of astronauts conducting operations aboard Shenzhou VII on Sept.27, the broadcast was met with skepticism and ridicule among many in the online community in China. 

[Video: Live broadcast of Shenzhou VII’s spacewalk on YouTube. [http://www.youtube.com/v/UhjnT8Oqhjk&hl=en&fs=1]] 

Some think that CCTV’s broadcast of the spacewalk was used to distract attention from the rapidly growing scandal of Melamine-contaminated food from China.

‘Tied It in Water’

In an eight-minute clip from CCTV, an astronaut emerged from the hatch of the spacecraft and hooked ropes to the outside of the craft. He waved and spoke to the camera briefly before proceeding to exit the craft completely, clinging to the outside of the craft. The image began to break and camera switched to scenes from inside the control center.

Sounds of the on-board crew communicating with the ground control center could be heard in the broadcast footage. In it, the commander of the space mission said,  “Number one; Number two; Tied it in water; Operation is normal,” which bloggers took to mean that the operation was conducted in water. (“Number one” and “number two” referred to astronauts Zhai Zhigang and Liu Boming.) [Video：Youtube links:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvz0GZPNIF0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMxQEHfU6hM&feature=related]

Bubbles in Space?

Two seconds into the video from CCTV, bubble-like objects rose from the hatch as it sprung open. At 5 min 49 second, a bubble attached to the astronaut’s helmet. At 6 min 42 seconds, bubbles swiftly came out of the cabin. On the left corner of the video, bubbles gushed out at an angle at 7 min 17 seconds into the video.

A blogger, who is a physicist, commented in a Chinese Epoch Times article that, assuming the operation was conducted in the water, the bubbles rose faster than they would have if the water was not propelled using a wave-blower. Wave blowers are commonly used in underwater space-training exercises to simulate the weightlessness of space.

Point-Source Lighting

[caption id=“attachment_74661” align=“alignright” width=“320” caption="On CCTV