Project 921 Shenzhou
China and Piloted Space Programs
Chinese man-in-space flight will implement "three step to walk" developmental strategy. China launched four unmanned missions to validate the spacecraft design and lay the foundation for realizing the piloted flight. This historical breakthrough, however, is only the first step. The second step is to continue on with the piloted vehicle to make observations and space experiments. This must complete the spacecraft development, with emphasis on docking experiments. The launch of a spacelab, which can conduct long-term independent flight, with short-term crew occupation. This would complete the Chinese integrated space project to use big space systems to solve certain space application problems. The third step would make a larger space station in which people can work for a long time. The space station would complete the Chinese man-in-space flight project "three step to walk" strategy.
Shenzhou Test Flights
China's first experimental spacecraft "Shenzhou" (meaning in Chinese "Magic Vessel", "God Ship", "God Boat" "Vessel of the Gods", "Divine Craft", "Divine Mechanism" but also a pun off a literary name for China), completed a 21-hour plus space voyage on 21 November 1999. After operating around the earth 14 times and completing the related scientific experiments, its recovery capsule touched down in the central Inner-Mongolia Autonomous Region in north China on November 21, 1999. Launched atop a new model Long March 2F booster, the unmanned spacecraft consists of propulsion, return and orbit modules. It carried a mannequin for test purposes. It is reported to be an 8.4 tonne capsule, capable of accommodating a crew of four. The capsule is not a reusable vehicle. After one or two unmanned flights, the same model was expected to carry one or more "taikonauts" in 2000. (A reported variant of Taikonaut is Taikongaut, "Tai Kong" meaning Cosmos.) Initial orbital parameters of the capsule were period 89.6 min, apogee 315 km, perigee 195 km, and inclination 42.6 deg.
China's Shenzhou II spacecraft carried a, a rabbit and snails into space in early January 2001, and returned to earth from the seven-day mission after making 108 orbits, as Beijing prepared for a manned flight in the next five years. Shenzhou II was composed of an orbital module, returning module and booster rockets, almost identical to how a manned spacecraft would be constructed. The descent module landed in Inner Mongolia on 16 January at 11:22 UT after separating from 2001-001A which continued to orbit, doing some zero-gravity experiments. The descent module is a prototype of an eventual manned spacecraft to carry Taikongyuans (Taikonauts). A major concern during this and the next few launches would be to assess the integrity of the heat shield during re-entry. The ShenZhou II spacecraft is believed to have suffered a hard landing upon its return since it has never been displayed in imagery.
China's third unmanned experimental spacecraft, Shenzhou-3 was successfully launched at Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in north-west China's Gansu Province on 25 March 2002. It consisted of three modules: a propulsion section, a conical re-entry capsule, and an orbiter. The capsule was equipped with all that would be needed for a manned flight. The emergency escape system, for automatic initiation and by ground command was repeatedly tested; more tests will be made before a manned launch. (The earlier models, Shenzhou 1 and Shenzhou 2 did not provide escape capabilities.) During the test launch, space scientists for the first time tested the launch escape system, which could save the lives of astronauts. Shenzhou's flight was tracked and controlled from the Beijing Aerospace Direction and Control Center and a fleet of four instrumentation ships, which were deployed in Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans.
Shenzhou-4 was launched on 29 December 2002. This fourth and last unmanned test mission of Shenzhou was the final test before sending a human into space. The spacecraft orbited the earth for a week before landing during early January in the desert of China's northern Inner Mongolia region. Officials at the time said the mission, which carried food, sleeping bags, and all equipment necessary for sustaining life, laid a solid foundation for a manned space flight. Since the January mission, scientists in Beijing studyied data collected by Shenzhou Four.
China launched its first manned space mission on 15 October 2003 at 9:00 AM local time with one "Yuhangyuan" (Astronaut, in Chinese), in Shenzhou 5. The astronaut, a 38-year-old air force lieutenant colonel named Yang Liwei, orbited the Earth 14 times in just over 20 hours. The 8.5 tonne satellite consists of three modules, the middle one being the manned one carrying one astronaut. After 21 hours of orbiting, the manned module and the service module were separated from the orbiter module, and commenced the return to Earth. During the descent, the manned module was separated from the service module and soft-landed on Earth. This feat has previously been accomplished by only two other nations: the United States and Russia. Chinese leaders had already attained seen a rise in national pride at a time when the country is seeing both unprecedented economic growth and mounting concerns over an expanding gap between rich and poor. A failure would raise questions about the necessity of a space program in a country where 140 million people live in abject poverty. Despite the income gap and high unemployment in some parts of the country, many Chinese - including very poor people - say they are proud that their nation is joining the United States and the former Soviet Union as the third nation to put a human in space.
As of 2005 China was estimated to have spent approximately $2.2 billion on its Shenzhou program.
Configuration
In the 1990's, China began developing a spacecraft designed to carry astronauts. The Shenzhou spacecraft is based on the three-seat Russian Soyuz capsule, although extensive modifications have been made. The craft, called the Shenzhou, lifts off from Jiuquan Space Launch Center in northern China. Landings take place in remote areas of Inner Mongolia.
The descent cabin lies in the middle of the spaceship, and is the astronaut's cabin and the command and control center. It is a airtight structure with a hatch on the top for astronaut to get in and out of the descent cabin and enter the orbital module, and it is the only landing part of the spaceship to return into the air and to land on the earth. The carrier descent cabin of Shenzhou spaceship is bell-shaped and its outer part is made of high temperature resisting compound material. It is 2.5 meters high and weights 3 ton with diameter of 2.5 meters. It can accommodate three astronauts. It is a modified version of the Russian Soyuz spacecraft, but with a 13% larger cockpit-equipped descent module.
The spacecraft's total length with it orbital module, descent module and instrument propulsion module is approximately 8.8 meters, base flared skirt diameter 2.8 meters, total mass 7,800 kilograms. In advancement spacecraft has two solar cell wing, attached to the outside of the instrument propulsion module module below the descent cabin. The two solar cell wing total area 24.48 square meters, which are deployed after launch have a wingspan width is approximately 17 meters. There are two solar cell wing on the outer Obital module total area 12.24 square meters, which are deployed after launch with a wingspan width approximately 10.4 meters. The god boat has 13 subsystems and its supplies the power distribution. The structure and the organization subsystem guaranteed the airship the configuration, and provides the life for the astronaut the structure space. The Shenzhou spaceraft orbital module has a mass of 2,000 kg with a length of 2.8 meters and a diameter of 2.25 meters.
Shenzhou-4 included a microwave radiac set mainly uses in to survey the precipitation, the atmospheric content, the snow, the soil ingredient, the sea-level temperature; Also may obtain the vegetation growth situation, carries on to the crops evaluates assets. The radar altimeter may obtain sea dynamics parameter and so on the ocean waves significant wave height, sea circulation, this measuring technique is at present to the global scope sea water, the sea ice surface carries on all-weather, is continual, the real-time high accuracy survey only method, has extremely the great significance to the natural disaster research. The radar scattered counts in surveys on the mechanism uses on the international advanced circular cone scanning method, this method only had in the satellite detection uses, it were allowed to survey the sea level wind speed and the wind direction, thus measured the sea level wind field, might apply to the sea power research, the sea condition forecast and the disaster monitor and so on many aspects.
The overall configuration of SZ-5 is mostly identical to SZ-4 with the exception of two areas. The forward end of SZ-5 would be cylindrical in shape instead of the hemispheric shape on SZ-4, and a docking unit for a future orbiting spacelab would be installed on SZ-5. The basic mission operation of SZ-5 would be the same as on SZ-4. The SZ-5 orbital module appears to be carrying both SIGINT equipment on its nose section and high rresolution Imagery equipment on its side based on the SZ-5 hardware imagert released and imagery of previous flown unmanned test spacecraft and official discussions of the planned payload hardware. The presence of test spacecraft docking equipment on the Orbital module is uncertain.
On 15 February 2003, the Commander-in-Chief of the Chinese manned spaceflight application system Zhang Houying had said in a public lecture in Beijing that a science payload, a CCD camera, would be mounted to the exterior of SZ-5. "The externally mounted camera is called a CCD transmission camera, with a ground resolution of 1.6 meter. Its main use will be in military reconnaissance," Zhang told the audience of more than 200 at the lecture. The resolution of the SZ-5 external CCD camera, interestingly, is very similar to the 1.8-meter imaging resolution of the Israeli remote sensing satellite EROS-A1.
Background
Since the late 1970's the PRC has seriously planned for the eventual flight of Chinese astronauts, but by the early 1990s shifting program priorities had resulted in only preliminary work in the areas of spacecraft design and space medicine. Small teams of Chinese had undergone some astronaut training, and designs for manned spacecraft ranging from simple capsules to space shuttles to space stations had all been drawn up. The 1984 prospect of a Chinese astronaut flying on the US Space Shuttle never materialized (Reference 65).
A 1978 decision to embark on a Chinese manned space program was short-lived, although astronaut training and space suit design were initiated (References 66-70). By the mid-1980's PRC began to talk about building a manned Chinese space station in apparent competition with the US and the USSR programs (References 71-76). Although discussions of sophisticated space shuttles were offered, the near-term goal appeared to be a Gemini-class capsule launched by an expendable booster with a crew of 2-4 astronauts. In 1994 the PRC held discussions with Russian aerospace officials for the purpose of acquiring Soyuz technology to be adapted to a Chinese recoverable capsule for launch by a CZ-2E booster, perhaps as early as the year 2002. The launch site may be a new facility reported in 1992 to be under construction 200 km from Jiuquan (References 77-82). It was later reported that the new manned launch infrastructure was to be finished in 1997 with the CZ-2F booster facilities systems test vehicles being run out to the new pad in May 1998. In 1999 imagery from those roll out infrastructure test were released publically.
China's ambitious three-phase space program was initiated in 1992. In the first phase, unmanned and later manned space vehicles will be put into space for astronauts to conduct scientific experiments and surveys from within the capsule while in orbit. In the second phase, astronauts will conduct spacewalks for the purpose of research, and space stations that operate on their own for most of the time and only need to be taken care of for a brief period of time will be created and launched into space. In the third phase, larger space stations with the ability to house astronauts for longer periods of time will be built.
In early 1999 the first piloted Chinese spaceflight was widely anticipated to be attempted in October 1999, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the founding of the People"s Republic. On 18 March 1998 Ma Xingrui, vice-president of the Chinese Academy of Space Technology (CAST) stated (Reference 159) that:
"China is striving to make breakthroughs in manned space flight technology at the end of this century or the beginning of the next century, and will launch small lunar explorer when possible,"
Two Chinese astronauts, Wu Jie and Li Qinglong [also transliterated as Wu Tse and Li Tsinlung], participated in a two-year training program at the Russian Yuri Gagarin Center beginning in November 1996. And work on a recoverable 20-ton spacecraft at the Shanghai Academy of Space Technology is said to be nearing completion (Reference 160). Work under the code name "Project 921" was reported to envision two unmanned test flights in for 1998. As with the Russian the Soyuz the Chinese spacecraft will include a reentry capsule and an orbital life module, but unlike Soyuz it does not include an approach and docking system (Reference 161).
In August 1999 Wang Xingqing, general designer with the Chinese Academy of Launch-Vehicle Technology, stated that that first Chinese human space flight would take place around 2005. In June 1999 images purporting to be those of a version of China's Long March booster capable of launching a piloted spacecraft were made public. While some "enhancement" may have taken place, there was evidently some basis in truth of these images of the Long March 2F. Close study of the LM-2F design revealed that the telemetery and command and control antenna's had been rearranged from the original design seen on the LM-2E boosrer arrangement in addition to other upgradings design changes uprating the booster performance.
Shenzhou-6
At a press conference on Oct. 16, 2003, Xie Mingbao, a space official, predicted that China would launch Shenzhou-6 in one or two years. The number of astronauts aboard the Shenzhou-6 spacecraft to be launched in next two years was still undecided, and dismissed reports on the next mission as inaccurate.
Wang Liheng, director of Science and Technology Commission under the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CAST), and former deputy chief commander of China"es manned space program, said Shenzhou-5, the first manned spacecraft, had the designed capacity to carry three astronauts and circle the Earth for seven days. The number of astronauts to be sent into space on the second manned flight would be decided only after experts completed analysis of the data collected from Shenzhou-5.
A newspaper in southwest China"es Sichuan province mistakenly quoted Xu Dazhe, deputy president of CAST, as saying that three Chinese astronauts would be sent into space on Shenzhou-6 on a seven-day mission. Xu later told Wang, his former boss, that what he told the newspaper was that Shenzhou-6 had the capacity to carry three astronauts and fly in space for seven days. But rocket expert Wang Yongzhi, chief designer of China"es manned space program, told Xinhua during his visit to Hong Kong that two astronauts would hopefully go into space aboard Shenzhou-6 on a mission lasting more than 24 hours.
Shenzhou VI, China's second manned space flight to be launched in 2005, was scheduled to fly five to seven days, according to Wang Yongzhi, chief designer of China's manned space program. Two astronauts were expected to fly in Shenzhou VI. The design resembles that of Shenzhou V, but this time, the astronauts would step into the orbital module and conduct various types of experiments there. The astronaut team was to start training for the Shenzhou VI flight in March. Yang Liwei, a member of the team, successfully completed China's first manned space flight in October 2003. China would launch a space station of larger scale with greater experimental capacity following Shenzhou VII and Shenzhou VIII.
By the end of 2004 it was reported that China was planning to launch the Shenzhou 6 spaceship, China's second manned spacecraft, in 2005. Yuan Jiajun, the director of the Chinese Academy of Space Technology says the Shenzhou 6 will carry 2 astronauts for a five-day space flight. "The Shenzhou 6 spaceship will face much challenges in adapting to the space environment and in protecting the astronauts. The researchers of manned aerospace must make careful plans to guarantee success." Yuan Jiajun says that up to now, the research and manufacturing of the Shenzhou 6 spaceship has gone smoothly.
On 12 October 2005 Shenzhou VI carried astronauts Fei Junlong and Nie Haisheng into space for a five-day mission. The launch at the Jiuquan space center in the Gobi Desert went well, with national television carrying the spectacle live. Two Chinese astronauts orbited Earth exactly two years after Beijing launched its first human into space aboard the Shenzhou-5. Experts consider the successful 2003 mission to have been, China's entry into the small club of world-class space powers. the Shenzhou spacecraft series has limited military utility. The primary considerations are instead prestige.
Future Plans
By the end of 2004 it was reported that Shenzhou-7 included plans to send China's first female astronaut into orbit.
In 2002 a three-step plan of China's first manned spaceflight consisted of: take Chinese astronauts into space; create a space laboratory; and establish China's space station and establish a connection with international space stations. A total of 12 astronauts, who passed a rigid selection process to become the country's first generation of astronauts, were receiving intensive training. According to one source these include: 1- Chen Long, 2-Chen Quan, 3-Deng Qingmin, 4- Fei Junlong, 5- Jing Haipen, 6-Liu Buoming, 7-Liu Wang, 8- Nie Haishen, 9-Pan Zhanchun, 10- Yang Liwei, 11- Zhai Zhigang, 12- Zhang Xiaoguan, and 13- Zhao Chuagdong.
The PRC has expressed interest in joining the International Space Station, although such cooperation would require a change in political relations with the United States (References 83-84). When asked about new partners for the ISS, specifically China, O’Keefe said that is “an attractive and appealing possibility.” China’s burgeoning space program, including future human spaceflight, is a demonstration of that country’s “national prowess and capacity,” O’Keefe said. [Space.com - 11 April 2002]
No current plans are known for China to make a piloted excursion to the moon, but as they develop their expertise over the coming years, that cannot be ruled out.
Plans for a Sanger class, two-stage manned space shuttle were under consideration in the early 1980's, but the demanding program does not appear to have a high priority (Reference 85).
