◎ Correspondent Pang Dan Science and Technology Daily reporter He Liang Fu Yifei
At 1:56 a.m. on May 10, the Tianzhou-4 cargo spacecraft developed by the Fifth Academy of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation was successfully launched by the Long March 7 Yao-5 carrier rocket at the Wenchang Launch Site in Hainan. After about 7 hours, at 8:54 Beijing time on May 10, the Tianzhou-4 cargo spacecraft adopted the autonomous rendezvous and docking mode and successfully completed the backward docking with the space station Tianhe core module. This is the first launch of the space station construction mission in 2022, officially opening the curtain on the full construction of the Chinese space station.
According to reports, the Tianzhou-4 cargo spacecraft loaded the 3 astronauts of Shenzhou 14 who stayed in orbit for 6 months, propellants, application of real (test) test devices and sample materials, spare parts and part of the load and other materials, after the completion of the rendezvous and docking, will be transferred to the combined flight section.
The Tianzhou-4 cargo spacecraft was developed by the Fifth Academy of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (hereinafter referred to as the "Fifth Academy"), and the Tianzhou-4 mission was the opening battle of the construction stage of the Chinese space station, and it was also a key battle to comprehensively complete the construction of the space station and realize the grand strategic goal of the "three-step" manned space project, which will lay a solid foundation for steadily advancing the engineering tasks of the continental space station and building a national space laboratory.
The reporter learned from the Fifth Academy that as a ground logistics supply spacecraft of the space station, the Tianzhou cargo spacecraft adopts a type spectrum scheme, designs three cargo compartment modules that meet the needs of different cargo transportation, fully sealed, semi-open and fully open, and combines with the universal propulsion module to form a fully sealed cargo spacecraft, a semi-sealed semi-open cargo spacecraft and a fully open cargo spacecraft. Among them, the Tianzhou-4 cargo spacecraft is a fully sealed cargo spacecraft, which is the world's largest active cargo transportation capacity and the most comprehensive cargo spacecraft in orbit support capacity, undertaking the task of providing material support, space station operation support and space science experiments for the Shenzhou 14 crew, and will implement cargo replenishment, propellant replenishment and space science experiments during the docking of the space station.
In this mission, Tianzhou-4 loaded more than 200 pieces (sets) of cargo totaling astronaut systems, space station systems, space application fields, and cargo spacecraft systems, carried about 750 kilograms of supplemental propellant, and weighed about 6,000 kilograms of uplink materials, which will provide material support for the 3-month on-orbit residence of Shenzhou XIV crew, the assembly and construction of the space station, and the development of material science, microgravity, aerospace medical experiments and other space application fields.
In order to ensure the safe delivery of goods to the "Space Home", Tianzhou-4 adopts a variety of cargo loading methods such as cargo bags, brackets, and storage boxes, and the types and quantities of goods can be dynamically configured according to the needs of the space station; at the same time, it also has the ability to support space station operation support capabilities such as attitude orbit control, grid-connected power supply, telemetry, data transmission support, etc.
According to the opinions of the astronaut crew on-orbit use, Tianzhou-4 has increased the color marking of the cargo bag through the color design of the label and the handle, which is convenient for the astronauts to find the cargo. At the same time, Tianzhou-4 began to add buckle belts for the adapter board and the corresponding shelves to achieve convenient anti-drifting during the orbit period, facilitate astronauts to operate the loading adapter board on orbit, optimize the design of the buffer foam in the cargo bag, and increase the cushioning scheme of the column to reduce weight, so as to reduce the on-orbit space occupation of the buffer packaging material and facilitate storage. These ingenious designs help tianzhou no. 4 to ask the "tiangong".
In addition, the reporter learned from the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, a subsidiary of China Aerospace Science and Technology Group Co., Ltd., that in this mission, the rocket has a total of 17 technical state changes such as pre-launch process optimization and reliability improvement. Among them, the parallel filling of liquid oxygen kerosene on the launch day reduces the pre-launch preparation time, reduces the requirements for conditions such as meteorological support of personnel and equipment, and improves the reliability of the launch; the first general inspection is combined with the true boost matching test to ensure the coverage of the test while reducing the repetitive test; some of the arrows are loaded and shipped to the launch site, and some test items are carried out before leaving the factory... Through this series of measures, the rocket test cycle was reduced by 4 days, from the original 31 days to 27 days. This is also the first time that the Long Seven rocket has been tested and launched in one month.
The pictures in this article were provided by the Fifth Academy of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation Wu Tong Xiaoyu and Gao Wenhao