As the second mainland to enter the space to carry out the mission, the first female astronaut to enter the Chinese space station to perform the mission, Wang Yaping is very experienced in space flight, as early as 2013 she carried out the Shenzhou 10 mission, the spacecraft and the Tiangong-1 target vehicle to achieve hand-controlled rendezvous and docking, the astronauts stationed in Tiangong-1 after carrying out a series of scientific experiments, and carried out space teaching activities, Wang Yaping became China's first space teacher. After the mission, the astronauts were evacuated from Tiangong-1 to Earth on the Shenzhou-10 spacecraft.
In December 2019, Wang Yaping was selected for the Shenzhou-13 mission crew, and from October 2021 to April 2022, Wang Yaping and two other astronauts carried out the Shenzhou-13 mission together, and she became China's first female astronaut stationed in the space station and the first out-of-cabin activity.
Judging from her flight situation, in the past two missions, she has not been short in orbit for a single flight, and she has carried out space out-of-cabin activities, and is fully qualified to serve as the commander of the mission, and many people expect Wang Yaping to serve as the commander as soon as possible and lead the new astronauts to the Chinese space station. The Shenzhou-19 spacecraft is ready to launch at the end of this month, so will Wang Yaping participate in this mission and serve as the commander?
Wang Yaping appeared again
On October 16, Wang Yaping made a public appearance again and came to Anhui Normal University to participate in the 6th "Huajin Lecture Hall", and told her own struggle to build dreams and pick up stars with the title of "Dancing with the Times, Dancing with Dreams". At the event, Wang Yaping told her childhood dream of flying, and also told the story of the struggle of not forgetting her original intention and chasing her dreams.
In addition, Wang Yaping also told everyone about the daily training and living conditions of astronauts, and also shared his personal experience of challenging physical and psychological limits in the training process, sharing the experience of living, working and teaching in space, and sharing his mental journey when he went out of the capsule for the first time.
Wang Yaping also interacted and communicated with the students at the scene, encouraging everyone to stay curious, explore bravely, work hard towards their dreams, and chase their own stars and seas. The students also said that Wang Yaping's sharing gave them more understanding of space flight and space exploration. And Wang Yaping's public appearance this month may mean that she will not participate in the Shenzhou 19 mission.
Because the astronauts involved in the Shenzhou 19 mission have been determined a long time ago, and now there may be only a few days before the launch of the Shenzhou 19 spacecraft, which means that the astronauts participating in this mission are very busy and have no time to participate in these offline activities, and it is expected that they will not make a public appearance to participate in the press conference until the day before the launch. Therefore, Wang Yaping, who made a public appearance recently, is likely not to be in the astronaut crew of the Shenzhou 19 mission.
Countdown to the launch of Shenzhou-19
The upcoming launch of the Shenzhou-19 spacecraft is actually familiar to everyone, because the spacecraft and rocket that carried out the Shenzhou-19 mission have been on standby at the Jiuquan Launch Center for almost half a year, and are now entering the official launch stage, preparing to carry out the manned mission.
This is the norm. Since entering the era of the space station, a single mission has lasted several months, with the longest being six months. For the safety of astronauts in orbit, when there are astronauts on the Chinese space station, there will be a new spacecraft and a new rocket on the ground on standby to ensure that if necessary, we can quickly launch a new spacecraft to carry out rescue missions and bring the astronauts back. To put it simply, our manned spacecraft has adopted the mode of "sending one and preparing one".
The Shenzhou-19 spacecraft will soon be launched to carry out the last manned mission of the year, and when the Shenzhou-19 spacecraft is launched, the spacecraft and rockets that carry out the Shenzhou-20 mission will also be assembled and tested, so as to replace the Shenzhou-19 mission ship and arrow into the emergency rescue state, and escort the astronaut crew of the Shenzhou-19 spacecraft.
During the upcoming Shenzhou 19 mission in orbit, there will also be 2 spacecraft evacuations and 2 spacecraft arrival missions, one of which is the evacuation of the Tianzhou-7 cargo spacecraft and the Shenzhou-18 spacecraft, in addition to the arrival of the Tianzhou-8 cargo spacecraft and the Shenzhou-20 spacecraft. In this process, our space station assembly will also constantly change configurations due to the arrival and evacuation of spacecraft.
In the case of the launch time of the Shenzhou 19 spacecraft getting closer and closer, in addition to Wang Yaping, many astronauts also made a public appearance, including Yang Liwei, Liu Yang, Zhang Lu and many other astronauts, at 8:30 a.m. on October 19, Beijing Aerospace City held a half marathon of "Running to Space and · Forge Ahead", and astronauts Liu Yang and Tang Hongbo also participated in this event. The recent public appearance of these astronauts may mean that none of them participated in the Shenzhou-19 mission.
If this is the case, there may not be a female commander in the Shenzhou 19 mission. Because in the mainland astronaut team, only Wang Yaping and Liu Yang have carried out space missions among female astronauts, and only the two of them have the conditions to serve as the commander of the flight mission. These two female astronauts have recently made public appearances, and if they are not involved in the Shenzhou 19 mission, the commander of this mission is likely to be a male astronaut.
The Tianzhou-7 cargo spacecraft has been flying for 9 months
At present, China's space station is followed by the Tianzhou-7 cargo spacecraft and the Shenzhou-18 spacecraft, of which the Shenzhou-18 spacecraft has been flying for almost 6 months, while the Tianzhou-7 cargo spacecraft has been flying for a longer time, reaching 9 months. On January 17 this year, the Tianzhou-7 cargo spacecraft was launched and has been in orbit for more than 270 days, setting a record for the interval between cargo missions on China's space station.
In the early days of the construction of China's space station, we will launch 2 Tianzhou cargo spacecraft every year for replenishment, and the time interval is almost half a year, and now the Tianzhou-7 cargo spacecraft has been flying for 9 months, so is the material of our space station still enough?
In fact, there is no need to worry at all, the materials in our space station are still very sufficient, starting from the Tianzhou-6 cargo spacecraft, the new batch of cargo spacecraft has been greatly upgraded, and the carrying capacity has been greatly improved, so the launch frequency of the Tianzhou cargo spacecraft has been adjusted from 2 per year at the beginning to 3 per 2 years now.
Now the Tianzhou-7 cargo spacecraft has been in operation for 9 months, which also means that the spacecraft mission will soon be nearing the end, and the Tianzhou-8 cargo spacecraft will be launched soon. This is all in the design of scientific researchers, and the Tianzhou-8 cargo spacecraft to be launched will support the Shenzhou-19 spacecraft and the Shenzhou-20 spacecraft for two manned missions.