76View
1m 1sLenght
0Rating

572671 Pollution at Olympic venues AP TELEVISION Beijing, 28 July 2008 1. Wide of Beijing National Stadium shrouded in smog 2. Various of smoggy day in Beijing 3. Traffic scene 4. Various of area near Olympic Green 10:13:15:00 579702 Pool Jiuquan Space Launch Centre, 25 Sept 2008 5. Wide shot of control room 6. Astronauts putting faceplates on 7. Countdown and take-off 10:13:38 579959 Chinese Taikonauts in country's first ever spacewalk; reax POOL Earth Orbit/Beijing, 27 Sep 2008 8. Wide of Shenzhou 7 mission commander Zhai Zhigang waving Chinese flag in space 9. Medium of Zhai waving Chinese flag with crewmate Liu Boming emerging from hatch and taking flag STORYLINE: In July the Chinese capital was shrouded in a thick, gray haze of pollution, less than two weeks before the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games. One expert warned that drastic measures enacted to cut vehicle and factory emissions in the city were no guarantee that skies would be clear during competitions. The smog covering the city was among the worst seen in Beijing in the past month, despite traffic restrictions that removed half of the city's vehicles from roadways. Visibility was a half mile (less than 1 kilometre) in some places. The city's notoriously polluted air is one of the biggest question marks hanging over the games, which begin on 8 August. The Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau said the air was 'unhealthy for sensitive groups.' The Chinese leadership consider the Beijing Olympics a matter of national prestige, and efforts to clean up the environment were part of its meticulous preparations for an event it hopes will dazzle the world. On September 25th China successfully launched a crew of three men into space. It's China's most challenging space mission since first sending a person into orbit in 2003. The Shenzhou 7 spacecraft, China's third manned mission, blasted off atop a Long March 2F rocket shortly after 9:00pm (1300 GMT) under clear night skies near the northwestern town of Jiuquan in Gansu province. Chinese President Hu Jintao attended the launch, underscoring the mission's heavy political overtones. Hu told the astronauts earlier in the day that the flight represented "a very big step" in China's technological development and progress. The mission is devoted almost entirely to the execution of the spacewalk, known formally as an extra-vehicular activity, or EVA. On September 27th a Chinese taikonaut on Saturday performed the nation's first-ever spacewalk, the latest milestone in an ambitious programme that is increasingly rivalling the United States and Russia in its rapid expansion. Mission commander Zhai Zhigang floated out of the orbiter module's hatch in the spacewalk. Tethered to handles attached to the Shenzhou 7 ship's orbital module's exterior, Zhai remained outside for about 13 minutes before climbing back inside and closing the hatch behind him. Fellow taikonaut Liu Boming also emerged briefly from the capsule to hand Zhai a Chinese flag that he waved for an exterior camera filming the event. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/6cd00eb82f7fdf2100ffee4acc1ab7b5 Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork