Although there are as many as 197 countries in the world, only three countries have really built manned spacecraft, China, Russia and the United States, China has a Shenzhou spacecraft, Russia has a Soyuz spacecraft, the United States has a manned dragon spacecraft, if you want to ask which country spacecraft is the most advanced, this is really impossible to answer, because each has its own advantages.
However, recently, a manned flight of the US spacecraft has exposed that the convergence and docking technology of the US manned spacecraft may really be inferior to the rapid convergence and docking technology of the mainland manned spacecraft.
The U.S. spacecraft arrived at the space station 16 hours later
I believe everyone knows this space news, UTC time on April 27, 2022 07:52, a SpaceX manned Dragon spacecraft successfully lifted off, which is the united states resumed manned launches, the fourth crew-4 crew from the United States mainland , built by Musk's SpaceX company.
SpaceX Crew-4 launched using the Falcon 9 rocket, this rocket uses the repeated launch of the rocket booster B1067, the American Falcon 9 rocket is worthy of the world's most advanced rocket, not only to achieve rocket booster recovery, but also to do the recovery of rocket fairing, it is worth learning.
The SpaceX Crew-4 carried four astronauts, three American (NASA) astronauts and one European (ESA) astronaut, Shel Norwood Ringglum, Robert Hines, Samantha Christopherettti and Jessica Watkins, of which Samantha Christofretti was an Italian astronaut.
AT 23:37 UTC time on April 27, 2022, SpaceX Crew-4 arrived at the International Space Station, in order to welcome the arrival of the Crew-4 astronauts, the astronauts on the space station gave each of them a deep hug, and it will be a family after that, and harmony is the most important.
Crew-4 took nearly 16 hours from launch to arrival at the International Space Station, and for such a long time, astronauts had to sit in a few cubic meters of tight space, and it was completely sealed, and it was really not easy to solve a variety of problems such as eating, drinking and going to the toilet.
Is the U.S. technologically ill??
The American Crew-4 spacecraft arrived at the International Space Station in 16 hours, and it was reported that this was the fastest record ever recorded in the United States, because the previous ships took longer, and the Crew-3 spacecraft took 17 hours, so NASA experts also deliberately opened champagne to celebrate the crew-4 spacecraft setting the fastest record.
But in fact, there is really nothing to celebrate, because the mainland Shenzhou 13 spacecraft used 7 hours to successfully dock with the Chinese space station, which is because the mainland Shenzhou 13 used rapid rendezvous and docking technology, which greatly improved the accuracy of rendezvous and docking, saving a lot of time, 9 hours faster than the Crew-4 spacecraft.
Let's briefly review the launch process of the Shenzhou 13 spacecraft, at 0:23 on October 16, 2021, the Shenzhou 13 manned spacecraft lifted off, about 10 minutes later, the spacecraft separated from the rocket, and at 6:56 on October 16, 2021, the spacecraft successfully rendezvoused and docked with the space station assembly.
Is the U.S. technologically ill?? Let's analyze whether there is a difference between the International Space Station and the Chinese Space Station in terms of operating data, and see if we can find the reason why the Shenzhou 13 spacecraft is 9 hours faster than the Crew-4 spacecraft.
The Chinese space station runs in a low Earth orbit at a height of 420 kilometers, and the International Space Station also operates in a low Earth orbit at a height of 420 kilometers, so the orbital height is similar, the angle between the Chinese space station and the Earth's equator is 41.5 °, and the angle between the International Space Station and the Earth's equator is 51.6 °.
The orbital speed of the Chinese space station and the international space station is both 7.8 km/s, and the time required to circumnavigate the earth is about 90 minutes. It can be seen that the International Space Station and the Chinese Space Station have almost no difference in terms of operational data, which shows that the difficulty of the rendezvous and docking technology of the Chinese space station and the international space station is the same.
This fully shows that the rendezvous and docking technology between the continental spacecraft and the space station is indeed more advanced than the REND and docking technology of the United States, but this time it is the US technology that is not good, which has greatly damaged our country, and has obviously surpassed the United States in terms of rapid convergence and docking technology.
At last
The mainland has mastered the rapid convergence and docking technology, which has greatly saved the return time, but the United States is not technically good, and the spacecraft's journey to the space station is 9 hours longer. At present, the mainland has also mastered the rapid return technology, and Shenzhou 13 has used the rapid return technology to greatly shorten the return time.
However, the mainland's fast return technology compared with Russia's fast return technology, there is a lot of room for improvement, the Russian Soyuz spacecraft returned in 4 hours, Shenzhou 13 spacecraft returned 9 hours, in fact, the problem lies in the number of circles around the earth, Shenzhou 13 spacecraft around the earth 5 circles, Soyuz spacecraft around the earth 2 times.
Shenzhou 14 astronauts have been selected, scheduled to launch in mid-June, which will once again use rapid rendezvous and docking technology, in mid-December, Shenzhou 14 astronauts return, will once again use rapid return technology, these two technologies greatly improve the comfort of continental astronauts. Interesting and informative scientific content, please pay attention to the only WeChat public account: Interesting Exploration