On October 15, 2003, the Shenzhou-5 spacecraft was successfully launched, and Yang Liwei returned triumphantly after flying into space for more than 21 hours on the spacecraft, realizing the Chinese nation's wish to fly to the sky for a thousand years, and the mainland became the third country in the world to independently carry out manned space missions. So far, our manned space flight has been developing for more than 20 years, and a space station has been built.
So far, the mainland has now carried out or is carrying out manned missions, and among these astronauts, some astronauts have gone to space to carry out flight missions many times, for example, Jing Haipeng has carried out a total of four space missions, which is the astronaut who has carried out the largest number of manned flights on the mainland so far.
Although astronaut Tang Hongbo, who is carrying out the Shenzhou 17 mission, has not gone to space many times, this is his second trip to space, but in the previous Shenzhou 12 mission, he flew in orbit for 3 months, and Shenzhou 17 was in orbit for 6 months, and now he has become the astronaut with the longest flight time in orbit on the mainland, and when he returned to Earth on the Shenzhou 17 spacecraft at the end of this month, the cumulative time in orbit reached 9 months.
Shenzhou-18 is in place
Now the Shenzhou-17 spacecraft has been in orbit for more than five months, and it is expected to return to Earth at the end of this month, that is, it will be evacuated in another ten days. Before the Shenzhou-17 spacecraft returns to Earth, a new spacecraft will depart for China's space station, and this spacecraft is the Shenzhou-18 that everyone has been focusing on lately.
On April 17, the Shenzhou-18 spacecraft and the Long March-2F Yao-18 carrier rocket were transferred to the launch area. The combination of rocket and spacecraft was transferred to the launch area, which actually means that the spacecraft has entered the countdown to launch, and it is expected that it will be launched in a few days and go to the Chinese space station.
At present, the state of the launch site is good, and a series of work such as functional inspection and testing before the launch of the rocket and spacecraft will be carried out according to the plan, and after waiting for the arrival of the launch window, the Shenzhou-18 spacecraft will be launched.
If it is a spacecraft flying alone, the requirements for the launch window may not be very high, but for these spacecraft that need to achieve rendezvous and docking with the space station assembly, the requirements for the launch accuracy are high, and the requirements for the launch window are very high.
That is, the deviation from the actual launch time of the rocket and the scheduled ignition time is small. In the previous launch of the Wentian experimental module, it was launched with a zero window, and the deviation between the rocket launch time and the scheduled ignition time was no more than 1 second.
This is because the space station assembly flies around in low earth orbit at a very fast speed, and if it is not launched in the predetermined launch window, the spacecraft may be far away from the space station assembly after entering orbit, which not only requires a large amount of propellant to change orbit, but also increases the time for spacecraft rendezvous and docking. Due to the limited space inside the spacecraft, the longer the rendezvous and docking flight time, the more comfortable the flight.
Astronaut Liu Yang appeared
Yang Liwei is the first astronaut in the mainland to enter space to carry out a flight mission, while Liu Yang is the first female astronaut in the mainland to enter space to carry out a flight mission. As the first male and female astronauts to fly a space mission, we all expect them to be able to go to space again, but judging from the current situation, there is a high probability that these two astronauts will not participate in the Shenzhou 18 mission.
For example, Yang Liwei was interviewed by the media when he attended the two sessions in March, when Yang Liwei said that when the Shenzhou-17 spacecraft returned, he would go to the scene to greet them as much as possible. As we mentioned earlier, the Shenzhou 18 spacecraft will be launched before the return of Shenzhou 17, so if Yang Liwei is going to the scene to welcome the triumphant return of the Shenzhou 17 astronauts, then he will not participate in the Shenzhou 18 mission.
On April 16, female astronaut Liu Yang came to Jianzha County, Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province, which is known as the "hometown of colorful arrows". Astronaut Liu Yang, wearing a sky-blue astronaut training uniform, participated in the "Luming Classroom" open class at the Second Nationality Middle School in Jianzha County, told the story of his dreams, and took teachers and students here to "travel" in space.
It is already late April, and Shenzhou 18 is expected to be launched in a few days, and now the astronauts participating in the Shenzhou 18 mission are participating in mission training and should not participate in offline activities. Therefore, there is a high probability that Liu Yang, the female astronaut who appeared in the classroom, will not participate in this mission.
Shenzhou 17 is about to return triumphantly
From the perspective of mission arrangement, our space station is still relatively busy at the end of this month, on the one hand, we need to welcome the arrival of the Shenzhou 18 spacecraft, and on the other hand, we need to complete the evacuation and return of the Shenzhou 17 spacecraft. According to the plan, the Shenzhou-17 spacecraft will return to Earth at the end of this month and land at the Dongfeng landing site, ending a six-month flight journey.
Since its launch, the Shenzhou-17 astronauts have been on a "business trip" in space for more than five months, and in the past five months, the three astronauts have completed a series of tasks, including two out-of-cabin activities. Although the previous missions have carried out out-of-cabin activities, the out-of-cabin activities of the astronauts of Shenzhou-17 have still attracted much attention.
Because the Shenzhou 17 astronauts carried out extravehicular repair of the solar wing of the Tianhe core module during the out-of-cabin activities, this is a task that our astronauts have not carried out before, which is quite difficult and has a high risk factor. Although it was extremely challenging, the astronauts did an excellent job of this difficult task.