[X] My Assistant

[hal_9000]

From Space.com
BOULDER, Colorado -- A commercial remote sensing spacecraft has caught Chinese space workers readying their second piloted space mission.

The Ikonos satellite, operated by Space Imaging of Thornton, Colorado, took images of China’s human spaceflight launch complex on October 3 and October 9, with a shadow covering much of the rocket between two structures. The very tip of the rocket can be seen emerging from the shadow.....

http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/05101...unchcenter.html

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[dvandorn]

Yep -- those are basically the same fuel and oxidizer used by the Titan II. Storable propellants, non-cryogenic (thought perfect for ICBMs, until solid fuel motors struck everyone as even more storable and requiring less maintenance).

Of all the uses to which N204 and UDMH can be put, certainly launching manned spacecraft is one of the most benign. And I'd venture a guess that more of those fuels were used during Gemini and Apollo (for which the latter, of course, those same fuels were used on the CSM and the LM) than have ever been used testing and actually using nuclear-tipped weapons. Good thing, eh?

-the other Doug