VESSEL
SHENZHOU AND CHINA'S CREWED PROGRAM
China became the third country to launch people into space.
BEGIN — CHAPTER 01 →Project 921: named after the day it was approved
Project 921 was approved on 21 September 1992.
The striking thing is persistence.
A Soyuz-like layout, built bigger
Shenzhou has three modules like Soyuz.
The orbital module stayed in orbit as a satellite.
Shenzhou 5: twenty-one hours and fourteen sunrises
Yang Liwei flew 14 orbits in 21 hours 22 minutes.
Fourteen sunrises in a single day.
Living in the ship, then stepping outside
Shenzhou 6 flew two astronauts for almost five days.
Zhai Zhigang made China's first spacewalk in 2008.
To catch up, fly lower
Shenzhou 9 made the first manual docking; Liu Yang was the first Chinese woman in space.
To catch up in orbit, go lower.
Station height fixed at 390 km.
Six-month crews and a docking in three and a half hours
Shenzhou 12 docked 6.5 hours after launch; Shenzhou 13 stayed 182 days.
Crews rotate every six months; Shenzhou 21 docked in about 3.5 hours.
A speck of debris, a lifeboat swap and an empty seat home
Shenzhou 20's window was cracked by suspected debris.
Shenzhou 22 launched as a replacement lifeboat.
Energy only.
Mengzhou, Lanyue and a Moon landing “by 2030”
China aims to land astronauts on the Moon by 2030.
Tests of Lanyue and Mengzhou are under way.
From approval to a permanent station
It was never the fastest programme.