Shenzhou 6

Shenzhou 6 (神舟六号) is the sixth flight of the Spaceship Chinese Shenzhou and the second with being inhabited. For this second flight, two Taïkonaute S took seat on board capsule.

The main objective of this mission is to establish an embryo of Space station, using a orbital Module.

The vessel

Several improvements were carried out on the capsule to allow a stay moreover long life in Orbite. The Taïkonaute S will carry new flight suits, which they will be able to remove during their stay in Orbite.

The principal improvement is the presence of the orbital module, intended to remain in orbit during 6 months. This module has a livable space of 9 cubic meters.

The crew

On board, two taïkonautes Chinese (of taikong , meaning " espace" , name given to the Spationaut S Chinese):

Fei Junlong (40 years), Commander
Nie Haisheng (41 years), Pilot

Selection

The single passenger of Shenzhou 5 had announced that it would not form part of this crew.

Huang Chunping, the chief engineer of the rocket Long walk, declared in the Beijing Times that the taïkonautes which would be selected for this mission would be selected among three pairs of taïkonautes. Five pairs of taïkonautes were involved, and two of them were eliminated one month before launching.

The October 11th 2005, it was revealed that the three final couples were:

Fei Junlong and Nie Haisheng
Liu Buoming and Jing Haipen
Zhai Zhigang and Wu Jie

Sun Laiyan, the director of the National Chinese Space Administration, declared that the selected crew would be announced as soon as possible, 2 days before launching. It is the newspaper Your Kung CAM which announced that Zhai Zhigang and Nie Haisheng would be the selected pair. They are both originating in the province of Hubei.

Course of the mission

Arrived 2:45 before launching, it snowed when both taïkonautes entered the capsule.

Since the space center of Beijing, the Minister for Defense Hu Jintao and many other members of the Politburo have followed launching. This last took place Wednesday October 12th 2005 with 1:00 YOU (9 hours of the morning Chinese hour). The space Capsule left since the bases space Jiuquan, in Mongolia-Interior, for a five days mission in the space. The launcher used was a rocket Long walk 2F. The spaceship reached its orbit 21 minutes later.

Hundreds of million Chinese could follow on line unfolding on national television (and to international diffusion) CCTV-4. In the event of incident, the government had envisaged to diffuse documentary on the various incidents and accidents of the space Conquête.

The success of launching was quickly announced by Chen Bingde, a Member of the central military Commission of the Chinese Communist party.

During the mission, the taïkonautes entered the orbital module, where they could withdraw their cumbersome combinations. They carried out scientific experiments, without having more detail.

The October 13rd, Nie Haisheng celebrated her 41ème birthday in orbit. When it received the wishes of his wife and her daughter, the latter entonné the song “happy birthday”.

As envisaged, 5 days after takeoff, the capsule of landing was detached from the orbital module, which should remain in orbit during six months.

The capsule landed the October 16th with 20:32 YOU, has less than one kilometers of the point initially envisaged, with Siziwang in Mongolia-Interior, to approximately 400 km in the North-West of Beijing. It was also posed right.

An incident?

An incident had to take place in orbit, because the crew was constrained to carry out an operation of correction of trajectory not envisaged. What carries to believe that for a reason or another, the capsule deviated of its trajectory. Moreover, the re-entry took place at the end of 116h missions, whereas initially the duration envisaged was of 119h (either 2 additional orbits).

At the end of the mission, the persons in charge did not want to explain more in-depth the nature of this correction of trajectoire.

External bonds

on the mission Shenzhou 6
of the damaged part

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