The crew of astronauts on the Chinese space station will "change shifts" in orbit during the year

On February 9, at the press conference of the "Blue Book of China Aerospace Science and Technology Activities (2021)" of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Group, the relevant comrades of the Fifth Academy of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Group introduced that this year the academy will complete the assembly and construction of the mainland space station through six launch missions.

Since its successful launch on April 29, 2021, the Core Module of the Chinese Space Station has been in orbit for 286 days. Berlin Hou, deputy chief designer of the space station system of the Fifth Academy of Aerospace Science and Technology Group, introduced that through the residence of shenzhou 12 and 13 passenger groups, the key technologies used in the subsequent construction of the space station were systematically and fully verified, and the results met expectations.

The Shenzhou 13 crew, which is on a business trip in space, will return to the ground after 6 months of space residency. Shao Limin, deputy technical manager of the manned spacecraft system project of the Fifth Academy of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, introduced that the Shenzhou 13 manned spacecraft will use the rapid return scheme for the first time and land on the Dongfeng landing field to improve the comfort of astronauts and the efficiency of mission implementation.

In the construction stage of the space station, six spacecraft will be launched sequentially, namely Tianzhou 4, Shenzhou 14, Experimental Module I, Experimental Module II, Tianzhou 5, and Shenzhou 15. In the end, the space station will complete the construction of the T-shaped configuration, and the active space in the cabin will exceed 110 cubic meters, which can achieve long-term 3-person and short-term 6-person residence. After the space station completes the on-orbit test of functions and performance, it will move into the operational phase.

Berlin Hou said that this year, the space station will dock for the first time at the same time Shenzhou 14 and 15 Shenzhou manned spacecraft, to achieve six astronauts in orbit rotation, and for the first time to form a six-capsule combination of the configuration. The space station orbit construction task density is large, and the task is highly coupled and interrelated, and the docking and separation action will reach more than ten times during the construction process, and new tasks such as section transposition, large and small arm combination work, and cargo out of the cabin will be implemented, which means that the state control of the space station assembly is extremely complicated. After the completion of the construction of the space station, astronaut residency and multi-field space science and technology experiments will continue to be carried out.

Source Beijing Daily Client | Reporter Liu Suya

Editor: Meng Ziwei

Process Editor Tai Shaofeng