SINGAPORE (AP) -- The Great Wall of China is visible from space, the last man
to walk on the moon told a Singapore newspaper, contradicting China's first sp
aceman, who said he couldn't spot the giant fortification.
Apollo 17 astronaut Gene Cernan -- who walked on the moon in December 1972 --
told the Straits Times newspaper he viewed China's most famous monument from s
pace. He said it's a matter of having good eyes and knowing where to look.
"At Earth orbit of 160 kilometers (100 miles) to 320 kilometers (200 miles) hi
gh, the Great Wall is indeed visible to the naked eye," Cernan was quoted as s
aying.
For decades, the Chinese have said the wall was visible from space, with eleme
ntary-school textbooks proclaiming that the structure can be seen by the naked
eye of an orbiting cosmonaut.
But the myth was shattered when Chinese astronaut Yang Liwei returned from spa
ce last year and said could not see the Great Wall while in orbit.
China's Education Ministry has ordered publishers to stop printing the "falseh
ood" that the Wall can be seen from space, the Beijing Times newspaper said Fr
iday.
The Straits Times interviewed Cernan last month when he visited Singapore for
an Asian Aerospace show. It printed the interview Sunday after hearing about B
eijing's order to revise the textbooks.
Cernan's comments also contradict the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Admi
nistration. Its Web site says although many manmade objects can be seen from s
pace without magnification, China's Great Wall is not among them.
The wall stretches thousands of kilometers (miles) across northern China, but
is only a few meters (yards) wide. It is also made from native materials that
match the color of the surrounding landscape, NASA's Web site says.
Cernan's comments in Singapore -- with 75 percent of its population ethnic Chi
nese _ may show he has heightened diplomatic senses along with acute vision. H
e also told the newspaper Singapore could be seen from space.
The tiny diamond-shaped island off the southern tip of Malaysia is too small t
o appear on many world maps. |
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