Cosmic Penguin

While randomly browsing for latest post-landing news for Chang'e 5, on this day I received a grim reminder of what I fear a lot lately - that I'm essentially fueling political propaganda despite completely not intending to do so. (1/8)

I came across on Chinese forums this old January 2019 article on the official People's Daily, which quoted an article on Wenweipo - one of the most PRC-aligned newspapers in my very city - on 4 Jan. 2019 quoting then CLEP Chief Engineer Wu Weiren: https://www.guancha.cn/industry-science/2019_01_04_485685.shtml … (2/8)

He claimed that back when it was announced Chang'e 2 would fly-by the NEO 4179 Toutatis in 2012, "the US reacted uncooperatively by immediately shutting down their small-body orbit database in response" (@NASAJPL's Solar System Dynamics?). (3/8)

He claimed that it took their own observatories' observations to track the asteroid's orbit to allow its successful fly-by in Dec. 2012. In response he said that the Chinese "has refused to give out orbital data & landing time of Chang'e 3 before it landed to NASA..." (4/8)