CCTV News: Pay attention to the launch mission of Shenzhou 18. On the morning of April 17, at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, the Shenzhou-18 manned spacecraft and the Long March-2F Yao-18 carrier rocket were transferred to the launch area. At present, the facilities and equipment at the launch site are in good condition, and various functional inspections and joint tests before the launch will be carried out as planned, and the launch is planned to be carried out this month.
At 10 o'clock in the morning, the Shenzhou-18 ship-arrow assembly drove out of the assembly and test plant under the support of the active launch platform, and smoothly sailed to the launch tower through vertical transfer.
According to Wang Xuewu of the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, this is the first manned mission to be carried out in April since the construction of the space station began. In view of the characteristics of the windy, dusty season, the facilities and equipment of the launch site have mainly improved their reliability and safety, strengthened the operation assessment and inspection, and further improved the coverage, pertinence and effectiveness of the test launch.
Xiao Nan of the First Academy of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation said: "Now the safety and reliability of the rocket have exceeded our previously scheduled technical indicators and fully meet the needs of the mission." This time, for the first time, we have used the new working platform in the fairing workflow, which has greatly improved quality and efficiency compared to the previous task. ”
Previously, in accordance with the mechanism of "one launch and one backup", the Shenzhou-18 manned spacecraft and the Long March-2F Yao-18 rocket have been on standby in the assembly and test plant for half a year as emergency rescue backups. At present, the Shenzhou-18 ship-arrow assembly has completed the final assembly and testing, and the facilities and equipment at the launch site are in good condition.
On the 1.5-kilometer road of vertical transfer, the reporter saw that the staff from the rocket, spacecraft, astronauts and other participating units enthusiastically sent each other all the way, and the vertical transfer also marked the official launch preparation stage of the Shenzhou 18 manned flight mission.
After about two hours of vertical transfer, the Shenzhou-18 ship-arrow assembly will be transferred to the launch area, and various functional inspections and joint tests will be carried out before the launch, and the Shenzhou-18 manned spacecraft will be launched this month. At present, the three astronauts of Shenzhou-17 are in good condition in orbit and are preparing for the visit of Shenzhou-18.
Shenzhou-18 will be launched this month and the Shenzhou-17 crew will return after the handover
In April, Shenzhou 18 will be launched, which means that Shenzhou 18 will be handed over to Shenzhou 17, which is on the Chinese space station, and the three astronauts of Shenzhou 17 will also return after the handover.
Shenzhou-17 was launched on October 26 last year (2023), and the three astronauts Tang Hongbo, Tang Shengjie, and Jiang Xinlin are the "youngest crew in history" so far. Up to now, the Shenzhou-17 crew has been working and living on the space station for nearly 6 months. In the meantime, Shenzhou 17 ushered in the Tianzhou 7 cargo spacecraft. During the mission, the crew completed two out-of-cabin activities.
Among them, on March 2 this year, the second out-of-cabin activity, the astronauts completed the maintenance task of the extravehicular facilities of the spacecraft in orbit for the first time, specifically, the focus is to complete the maintenance of the solar wing of the Tianhe core module, eliminating the impact of the impact of tiny particles in space in the early stage, and after evaluation and analysis, the power generation performance of the solar wing is normal. The astronauts also inspected the status of the space station module.
During the orbit, the Shenzhou-17 astronaut crew also worked closely with the ground scientific researchers to complete the first batch of extravehicular exposure experimental material samples retrieval work, the first batch of material exposure samples include non-metal and metal two categories, a total of 407 pieces, these samples were disassembled and stored by the astronauts, and will be returned to the ground with the astronauts and the Shenzhou spacecraft in the near future, and handed over to scientists to carry out further ground research work.
Since the Shenzhou-17 astronaut crew was stationed on China's space station, a large number of space science experiments and experimental projects have been steadily advanced, covering space life science and human research, space microgravity physics, space astronomy and earth science, and new space technologies and applications.
Source: CCTV