Two years
after making its first foray into the realm of human spaceflight, China has
once again launched a manned spacecraft into Earth orbit during a successful
Tuesday space shot.
Clad in space suits and
tucked inside their Shenzhou 6 spacecraft, Chinese astronauts Fei Junlong and Nie
Haisheng left Earth behind at 9:00 p.m. EDT (0100 Oct. 12 GMT) as their 19-story
Long March 2F rocket lifted off from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, state
media reported. A few minutes later, the astronauts were in orbit.
It was
9:00 a.m. local time during the space shot, which was beamed across China via live
television.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao
wished the astronauts - whose identities were unveiled only hours before
liftoff - well, adding that he was confident they "will accomplish the glorious
and sacred mission," China's Xinhua News Agency reported.
|
|
A schematic of Shenzhou 5 CREDIT: Simon Zajc/Elizabeth Lagana. Click to enlarge.
|
Fei and Nie will orbit
Earth for as long as five days during the Shenzhou 6 spaceflight, China's first
two-person mission, and are expected to perform a series of experiments to
advance China's understanding of human spaceflight. Their mission comes almost
two years to the day of China's first manned spaceflight, Shenzhou 5, which
launched astronaut Yang Liwei on a 21 ½ hour mission on Oct. 15, 2003. China is
the third nation to independently launch astronauts into orbit.
"Feeling
pretty good,'' Fei reportedly said, in the first broadcast comment from the
astronauts, according to the Associated Press.
Fei, 40, hails from Kunshan
in China's eastern province of Jiangsu and was one of five candidates for
China's first manned spaceflight, Shenzhou 5, Xinhua stated. Fei's
crewmate Nie, 41, is from Zaoyang, in the Hubei Province in central China, and
was one of the three finalists for the Shenzhou 5 spaceflight alongside
astronauts Zhai Zhigang and Yang Liwei, who ultimately made the country's first
manned space shot.
"We have confidence and
capability to fulfill the glorious task of the motherland and the people," Fei
said during a prelaunch press briefing.
Fei and Nie composed one of
three, two-astronaut teams vying for the Shenzhou 6 spaceflight. Astronauts Zhai
Zhigang, Wu Jie, Liu Boming and Jing Haipeng were the four other candidates for
the mission, according to state media reports.
According
to Xinhua reports, Fei and Nie will doff their 22-pound spacesuits and
move between their crew and orbital modules - something Yang did not do during
his day-long spaceflight.
Bigger, better, longer
Shenzhou 6 will mark the
first time that Chinese astronauts will participate in the experiments flying aboard
their spacecraft, Xinhua reported.
China's Shenzhou - or "Divine
Vessel" - spacecraft is a three-part vehicle based partly on Russia's Soyuz,
but heavily modernized and modified to suit the nation's spaceflight program.
Like the Soyuz, Shenzhou vehicles contain an orbital module, a crew
compartment, and a service module that houses propulsion and other vital
systems. But it is only the crew-carrying section that returns to Earth intact.
Shenzhou 6 reportedly
carries a series of advancements of its Shenzhou 5 predecessor, including a
food heater, dishware and an "excretement collecting facility" - or space
toilet - that are being used for the first time, according to Xinhua.
Sleeping bags and a new data recorder - a spacecraft black box - are also being
tested. The black box is faster than its Shenzhou 5 counterpart and contains
more storage space, but at only half the size, Xinhua reported.
Earlier this week, media
reports stated that Fei and Nie were not carrying seeds into space with them to
be exposed to radiation. The admission prompted some space experts to question
exactly what type of experiments the two astronauts will be performing during
their multi-day trek.
"The Chinese are probably
going to surprise us in terms of what the two guys will have been doing," China
space specialist Dean Cheng, of the CNA Corp. in Arlington,
Virginia, told SPACE.com
before launch. "It's a way for China to make the point again that this is 'bigger
and better, and that our firsts are more meaningful.'"
Cheng said that Earth
observation and human physiology checks are potential experiments.
The live broadcast of
Shenzhou 6's launch may be a sign that China's tight-lipped tradition with its
space mission may be loosening, though official barred foreign press from the
Jiuquan launch site and warned Chinese journalists that they might have to hand
over their still or video footage should something go wrong, the Associated
Press reported.
The 2003 launch of Shenzhou 5 was not broadcast live.
Astronaut league welcomes
Chinese comrades
Before today's successful launch,
the non-profit Association of Space Explorers (ASE), which is populated by past and present
astronauts and cosmonauts, issued an invitation to China's professional space
flyers - though the United Nations - to take part in their organization.
"As a member of the
Association of Space Explorers and a three-time space flyer, I am
absolutely convinced that the more human presence there is in orbital
space and beyond, the better for all humanity in understanding our place
in a very limited one planet environment," space shuttle payload specialist Charlie
Walker told collectSPACE, a SPACE.com
partner, during the 19th annual ASE Planetary Congress in Salt Lake City,
Utah. "We have to look forward to a successful launch, and a successful return,
of any and all taikonauts and Chinese flyers to space and back
again."
Fei and Nie are slated to
return to Earth in about five days and land their Shenzhou 6 crew capsule on
the flat grasslands of Inner Mongolia. Today's space shot marked the 88th
flight of a rocket from China's Long March family, Xinhua reported.
Robert Z. Pearlman, of collectSPACE, contributed to this
article from the Salt Lake City, Utah.
advertisement
