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[April 26, 1970] Red stars in space (Communist China and the USSR make leaps)

photo of a man with glasses and curly, long, brown hair, and a beard and mustache
by Gideon Marcus

It's likely you missed the other big news in space given how much the flight of Apollo 13 dominated the air waves.  But while we were busy ensuring that Lovell, Swigert, and Haise made it back home, the ChiComs and the Russkies were accomplishing some space spectaculars of their own:

If you look up in the sky, you'll see nine new stars, all of them Red!

Colour photograph from an elevated vantage of large crowds of people gathered in Tien An Men Square, illuminated from above by brilliant lamps

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