Jiuquan, China— China will send its first woman into space Saturday along with two other astronauts to work on a temporary space station for about a week, in a key step toward becoming the only third nation to set up a permanent base in orbit.
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Sometime very soon, China will be launching three Taikonauts to their new space station, making them only the third country ever to accomplish such a feat. The station, Tiangong 1 (it means Heavenly Palace, which sounds like a place I have a take-out menu from) was launched back in late September of last year. If you were to compare it to the first space stations launched by the old Soviet Union and the US (which everyone will), it seems incredibly modest and small. But that would be doing the Chinese space program a disservice, since they don't really intend it to be a space station at all.
They have a much better plan in mind it's not really a secret, but it's also not the story given to most media right now.
It's really a prototype of a cargo ship for a future, real space station.
That may not be as exciting as saying it's an orbiting laser platform that tracks you by your iPhone device ID, but it's actually a really smart move on the Chinese Space Agency's part. The Chinese are taking a very slow and carefully measured approach to their space program; compared to America's (or Russia's) they're spending very little money. So they have to make each and every launch count. Space stations as a concept are well understood now the hardest work has been done by the nine space stations that have preceded it since 1971 (for fun, here are the nine manned space stations: Salyuts 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, Mir, Skylab (which was huge), and the ISS).
This means the Chinese don't need to prove the concept, they need to just do it on their own. Even here they're standing on the shoulders of the Soviet program. Their manned spacecraft, Shenzou, is very much an improved, modernized Soyuz. Their future space station designs are based on the Salyut and Mir designs, though heavily modified and modernized. Tiangong, however, is different. It's not really based on the Salyut design, as a watcher of the Chinese space program would expect for their first station. It seems closer to a modified Shenzou.
Even though I preemptively chastised hypothetical other journalists from comparing Tiangong to other early space stations, that's exactly what I'm going to do now. But I give myself special permission. Let's first look at it compared to the very first space station ever, Salyut 1 from way back in 1971. Salyut 1 was basically a 40,000 lb pressurized cylinder with a docking port and 3500 cubic feet of internal volume for living, experiments, and what I suspect was the first 0g masturbation (of a higher primate I'm sure there was a reason there was no film of Ham the space chimp's flight). Tiangong 1, to compare, is a pressurized cylinder about 17,600 lbs and encloses about 508 cubic feet of habitable space. That's an awful lot less space for a crew of three to live and work in. And that's the first big clue this isn't a true space station.
If the Chinese could launch a 500 cubic foot cylinder, they could launch a 1500 cubic foot one or more without too much trouble. There's a good reason it's as small as it is. China is even referring to it as a "Target Vehicle" and space geeks are more likely to think of it as a "man-tended station" that is, it's a place you visit for a bit, not live in for long periods, like an actual space station. But all this is because it's a large cargo vehicle, not a small station.
As the Soviets demonstrated with Salyut 6, the key to living in space for really long periods of time is to have a spaceship with two or more docking ports and robotic resupply craft to keep sending up food, fuel, water, air, nudie mags, experiments, equipment, etc. The robotic craft they developed, the Progress, was a huge success and is still in use today. This is the vehicle the Tiangong 1 should be compared to, and in this context it makes total sense. It has about twice the interior, cargo-haulin' volume, and possibly many other advantages as well. We just don't know the details yet, but based on the Shenzou compared to a Soyuz, it's likely.
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China's New Space Station Isn't Really A Space Station [Spacelopnik]
JIUQUAN, China - China will send its first woman and two other astronauts into space Saturday to work on a temporary space station for about a week, in a key step toward becoming only the third nation to set up a permanent base in orbit.
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China to send woman and 2 other astronauts to space module in most ambitious mission yet
To mark the upcoming Olympic Games in London, a crew of astronauts due to launch to the space station this summer is planning an orbital sporting event for the occasion.
NASA astronaut Sunita (Suni) Williams, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency spaceflyer Akihiko Hoshide and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko are due to launch July 14 to the International Space Station.
Their planned four-month stay in space will overlap with the London 2012 Olympics July 27 to Aug. 12, so the sporty spaceflyers have something up their sleeves to celebrate the event.
"Something unique about our increment is we have a very huge sports event during our increment, so what we're talking about amongst ourselves is, why don't we do some kind of sports event onboard the station too?" Hoshide told reporters during a NASA preview the mission. "We're just tossing around ideas right now, what kind of sport event we can do. That's something I'm looking forward to."
Astronauts have staged orbital sports before. In fact, for the last Olympic Games, the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada, the 11 astronauts aboard the space station and the space shuttle Endeavour, which was docked there at the time, recreated the event in orbit. [Video: Sports in Space]
The spaceflyers tried their hand at space skiing, the zero-Glugeand weightless figure skating, all the while beaming a video of their orbital Olympics to Mission Control.
"You are officially the only folks who are able to get more hang time than Shaun White," the American gold medal-winning snowboarder, Mission Control radioed to the astronauts.
This time around, the spaceflyers are still working out which orbital events to stage, given their limitations.
"We just thought it would be something fun to do on orbit," Hoshide said."We have limited space and limited equipment."
Williams herself has participated in weightless workouts before, when she ran along with the Boston marathon on the treadmill aboard the International Space Station in 2007. She completed the marathon infour hours, 24 minutes, all while orbiting the Earth at some 17,500 miles (28,163 kilometers) per hour.
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China will launch three astronauts, including a mother of one who flies transport planes, to live and work on a space station for about a week, a major step in its goal of becoming only the third nation with a permanent base orbiting Earth.
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JIUQUAN, China (Reuters) - China will send its first woman into outer space this week, prompting a surge of national pride as the rising power takes its latest step towards putting a space station in orbit within the decade. Liu Yang, a 33-year-old fighter pilot, will join two other astronauts aboard the Shenzhou 9 spacecraft when it lifts off from a remote Gobi Desert launch site on Saturday ...
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Liu Yang draws cheers as first Chinese woman set for space voyage
China will send its first woman and two other astronauts into space Saturday to work on a temporary space station for about a week, in a key step toward becoming only the third nation to set up a permanent base in orbit.
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MCGREGOR, Texas - Marred by just a few scorch marks from its re-entry to the Earth's atmosphere, the world's first commercial supply spacecraft to visit the International Space Station weathered its maiden voyage well, NASA and SpaceX officials said Wednesday.
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NASA chief visits Texas rocket factory, views SpaceX Dragon capsule after historic flight
China's next high point in human space travel centers on a launch this weekend, with the planned Saturday liftoff (June 16) marking a major milestone for the country's space ambitions, according to state media reports and outside analysts.
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China's 1st Manned Space Docking Mission a Big Step, Experts Say
These fantastic photos were taken by Flight Engineer Don Petit during the Expedition 31s current tenure aboard the International Space Station.
He explains who he capture such stunning images on his flickr account. You know, if you ever happen to be aboard the International Space Station and want to try it yourself:
My star trail images are made by taking a time exposure of about 10 to 15 minutes. However, with modern digital cameras, 30 seconds is about the longest exposure possible, due to electronic detector noise effectively snowing out the image. To achieve the longer exposures I do what many amateur astronomers do. I take multiple 30-second exposures, then stack them using imaging software, thus producing the longer exposure.
The yellow orange trails you see in these photos are actually the lights of cites on Earth. A green aurora can also be seen surrounding the Earth in some of these extended exposure shots. The bluish blips you see on the surface of the Earth are actually lightning strikes. Cool!
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ESA astronaut Andre Kuipers is running experiments on the International Space Station that are shedding light on conditions deep inside Earth. Orbiting some 400 km above us, Geoflow is offering insights into the inner workings of our planet. Descending 3000 km under our feet, Earth's mantle is a semi-solid fluid under our thin outer crust. The highly viscous layers vary with temperature, pressure and depth.
Understanding how the mantle flows is a major interest for geophysics because it could help to explain earthquakes or volcanic eruptions. Computers can model it, but how can scientists be sure they are correct?
The deepest that humans have ever drilled is just over 12 km, so investigating the mantle directly is out of reach for the immediate future.
Instead of probing Earth's depths directly, six European teams led by the University of Cottbus in Germany looked to recreate aspects of mantle flow in a laboratory. Experiments simulating these conditions can verify and improve the computer models.
This poses a different problem, however. How can gravity be simulated without Earth's gravity itself influencing the results?
The solution is to send an experiment to our largest weightless laboratory: the International Space Station.
Planet in a box ESA sponsored the development of an experiment that mimics the geometry of a planet. Called Geoflow, it contains two revolving concentric spheres with a liquid between them. The inner sphere represents Earth's core, with the outer sphere acting as the crust. The liquid, of course, is the mantle.
Free from the influence of Earth's gravity, a high-voltage electrical field creates artificial gravity for the experiment.
As the spheres rotate slowly and a temperature difference is created between the shells, movement in the liquid is closely monitored. The temperatures can be controlled down to a tenth of a degree.
Andre has seen plumes of hotter liquid rising towards the outer shell - as predicted by computer simulations.
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Earth From Space: Egypt From the International Space Station
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An artist's rendering of the Tiangong-1 module, China's space station, which was launched to space in September, 2011. To the right is a Shenzhou spacecraft, preparing to dock with the module. Image Credit: CNSA
The Chinese government has announced they will launch three taikonauts sometime in mid-June 2012, on the first manned mission to dock with their orbiting experimental module, and confirmed again that the crew might include Chinas first female space traveler. A rocket carrying the Shenzhou 9 spacecraft was moved to a launch pad in Chinas desert northwest over the weekend, Chinas Xinhua News Agency reported.
The three-member crew will dock with and live inside the Tiangong 1 (or Heavenly Palace-1) orbital module launched last year. No word on how long the mission will be. We reported in March that the crew possibly could include a woman, and Niu Hongguang, deputy commander-in-chief of the countrys manned space program, said the final selection would depend on conditions nearer the time of launch. This type of late announcement of the crew is not unprecedented in the past, Chinas space program has named the crew for the next mission just a few days before launch.
From previous reports, China picked two women and five men from thousands of candidates to become the second batch of seven astronaut trainees in 2010. Both of the women were former fighter jet pilots.
The manned space program would not be complete without womens participation, Jiao Weixin, an earth and space scientist with Peking University, was quoted as saying.
China launched their first human mission in 2003. They have launched two other human missions, one of which included a space walk in 2008.
Zhou Jianping, chief designer of Chinas human space program, said that the mission will be a significant step in Chinas space history, because its the first time for a Chinese spacecraft to send astronauts into a space lab, instead of just carrying them to circle the Earth as in the previous three manned missions, the Chinese Daily reported.
During the flight, one crew member will remain aboard the Shenzhou 9 as a precautionary measure in case of emergency while the others enter Tiangong 1, Xinhua said.
Well keep you updated on any announcements of the crew or when the launch will take place.
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Upcoming First Human Mission to Chinese Space Station May Include Female Taikonaut
China may be just days away from launching its first manned docking mission to the country's Tiangong-1 space station module, according to reports. A Shenzou-9 spacecraft atop a Long March-2F rocket was moved on Saturday to a launch platform at Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China in preparation for a mid-June launch, Chinese space agency officials said over the weekend.
The China National Space Administration (CNSA) is now conducting final tests ahead of the launch, according to the Global Times. Tiangong-1 was successfully lowered to docking orbit earlier this month, the China-based tabloid newspaper reported.
The three-person crew aboard Shenzou-9 will include a female astronaut, either Liu Yang and Wang Yaping, China's official Xinhua news agency reported Monday.
One of the two candidates from the Chinese Air Force's Wuhan Flight Unit could become the first Chinese woman to travel to space, joining six male astronauts who have done so. Officially, the CNSA has only said that a female astronaut could be part of the Shenzou-9 crew and that the final decision would be made very late in the game, but Xinhua is regarded as the de facto voice of the Chinese government so it seems likely that the decision has been finalized.
"The Shenzhou-9 will perform our country's first manned space docking mission with the orbiting Tiangong-1 space lab module," said Zhou Jianping, chief designer of CNSA's manned space program, according to Global Times. "It means China's spacecraft will become a genuine manned shuttle tool between space and Earth. It can send human beings to space stations or space labs. This will be a significant step in China's manned space flight history."
The 9.4-ton Tiangong-1 module, launched and placed in orbit last September, is not a fully developed space station but rather a testing platform for rendezvous and docking missions like the one planned later this month. The CNSA aims to launch a fully functioning space station as part of the agency's Tiangong, or "Heavenly Palace" program.
The unmanned Shenzou-8 spacecraft successfully docked with Tiangong-1 last November. The upcoming mission calls for two astronauts to board the space station module, with the third remaining in the Shenzou-9 spacecraft.
Tiangong-1 is scheduled to be de-orbited in 2013 following the Shenzou-9 mission and another manned mission to the module.
For more from Damon, follow him on Twitter @dpoeter.
Originally posted here:
China has a problem. They have such a fairly long history of blatantly stealing technology from other companies, that they were not invited to participate in the International Space Station program. So, to stick their tongues out at everyone, they decide to take the Soviet approach and make their own. Now they are ready to man that space station.
Today the Chinese news agency called Xinhua is reporting that China is preparing to launch a manned space flight to the station called Tiangong-1 later this month. According to Wikipedia, Tiangong-1 is an experimental testbed to demonstrate the rendezvous and docking capabilities needed to support a space station complex. It will be deorbited in 2013 and replaced with different modules to make a true space station by 2020.
This falls in line with Chinas pledge to have a greater space presence and their goal of putting a man on the moon by 2017. Chinas hunger and wiillingness to spend the massive amount of money on a space program is kind of where we were 45 years ago. I think now is the time to push new manned missions to the Moon and eventually Mars before the Chinese can. Not only would it give Americans a sense of national pride that they havent felt since the 60s, but it will show that it is going to be a long time before another country can pass the United States technology wise.
Photo courtesy of english.people.com.cn
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China will send three astronauts into space aboard a Shenzhou 9 capsule to rendezvous with China's mini-space station Tiangong-1 by mid-June. The mission could be a major milestone in China's space program.
China will launch its first manned mission to an orbiting space laboratory in mid-June, according to state media reports and the country's human spaceflight agency.
A Long March 2F rocket will launch three astronauts aboard a Shenzhou 9 capsule for China's first manned space docking at the mini-space station Tiangong-1. The space lab module has been circling Earth unmanned since its launch last year.
"The Shenzhou 9 will perform our country's first manned space docking mission with the orbiting Tiangong 1 space lab module," the Xinhua news agency quoted Zhou Jianping, chief designer of China's manned space program, as saying on June ).
IN PICTURES: China's space program
Zhou's comments came as he accompanied the rocket set to launch the Shenzhou 9 mission to a pad at China's Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the country's northwest region.
The mission, Zhou told Xinhua, will be a major milestone for China's space exploration program.
"It means China's spacecraft will become a genuine manned shuttle tool between space and Earth. It can send human beings to space stations or space labs," Zhou told Xinhua. "This will be a significant step in China's manned space flight history." [Gallery: Tiangong 1, China's First Space Lab]
China's Shenzhou 9 mission will mark the fourth human spaceflight for the country, which has been making steady advances since the launch of Chinese astronaut Yang Liwei in 2003 on Shenzhou 5, the country's first human spaceflight. China is the third country to achieve human spaceflight after Russia and the United States.
Since its first flight, China has launched two more manned missions, the two-man Shenzhou 6 flight and three-person Shenzhou 7 mission. Last September, China launched the Tiangong 1 module a prototype for a future space station into orbit. That launch was followed in November by the unmanned Shenzhou 8 mission, which successfully docked a capsule with the space laboratory twice during the test flight.
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By W. Patrick McCray, Special to CNN
updated 12:46 PM EDT, Sun June 10, 2012
SpaceX Dragon spashes down
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Editor's note: W. Patrick McCray is a professor of the history of science at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is the author of the forthcoming book, "The Visioneers: How a group of elite scientists pursued space colonies, nanotechnologies, and a limitless tuture" (Princeton University Press).
(CNN) -- Recently, technology enthusiasts around the planet had the opportunity to get better acquainted with Elon Musk, the creator of SpaceX, the first privately owned company to send a spacecraft to the space station.
Launched in the same manner as a Silicon Valley startup, SpaceX designed and manufactured the Dragon capsule, which successfully completed a mission with the International Space Station before splashing down into the Pacific Ocean.
I see Musk, a 40-year-old entrepreneur who made his fortune by co-founding PayPal, as a "visioneer." That is to say, he is someone who combines scientific and engineering prowess -- in his case, a degree in physics -- with an expansive view of how technology will upend traditional economic models, and has the ability to inspire others to support his work.
W. Patrick McCray
Musk has bold visions for the future. When he finished college, he identified three areas that could change the world. One was the Internet; another was new sources of energy; and the third was transforming our civilization in such a way so that it could expand out into the solar system.
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China will launch its manned spacecraft in mid-June to perform a space docking, it has been reported.
The move is seen as a step ahead in achieving a 60-tonne permanent space station by 2020. Earlier, the Communist nation was turned away from the International Space Station, a 16-nation partnership, apparently at the insistence of the US.
The Shenzhou-9 spacecraft and its carrier rocket have already been moved to the launch platform at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in northwest China, reports the country's state media.
It would be China's first manned mission since September 2008 and the spacecraft would be docking manually with the Tiangong-1 module (Heavenly Body) presently orbiting the earth.
Tiangong-1 is the first space station module launched by China.
The crew of Shenzhou-9 spacecraft may include female astronauts, another first in the country's space programme, Xinhua reported, quoting Niu Hongguang, deputy commander-in-chief of the manned space programme.
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After docking with the Tiangong-1, two of the crew would move to the space station temporarily and conduct experiments while the third one would stay back in the spacecraft.
Tiangong-1or Heavenly Body, China's space station module. Image Courtesy: Nesnad/Wikimedia Commons
Space docking technology requires delicate maneuvering that brings together two high speed vessels in the orbit.
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China's Manned Spacecraft to Dock with its Space Station Module in June
China will launch a spacecraft this month to conduct its first manned space docking, state media said Saturday, the latest step in a plan aimed at giving the country a permanent space station by 2020.
The Shenzhou-9 spacecraft and its carrier rocket have already been moved to the launch platform at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China, the Xinhua news agency said, quoting the country's manned space program.
The launch -- China's first manned space mission since September 2008 -- would occur "sometime in mid-June," it said.
NEWS: Why 'Space Madness' Fears Haunted NASA's Past
Officials said the mission would involve three astronauts manually docking with the Tiangong-1 module currently orbiting Earth.
In March state media said China may send its first woman into space this year after including female astronauts in the team training for its first manned space docking.
Niu Hongguang, deputy commander-in-chief of the manned space program, has said that the Shenzhou-9 crew may include female astronauts, Xinhua reported.
NEWS: John Glenn's Spaceflight Was Filled With Unknowns
After the space rendezvous, two of the astronauts will move temporarily into the Tiangong-1 (Heavenly Palace), where they will perform scientific experiments.
One of crew will remain on board the spacecraft as a precaution in case of an emergency, according to the official quoted by Xinhua.
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Occasionally we get really amazing photos of earth and space from the International Space Station, but the batch recently posted to the ISS Flickr stream contains some of the coolest yet because they don't even look like earth or space.
If there wasn't recognizable space gear in the above photo, you'd probably think it was computer-generated.Boing Boing's Maggie Koerth-Bakernailed it, comparing the photos byExpedition 31 Flight Engineer Don Pettit to scenes from Tron, and Twisted Sifter, which was among the first to notice the photos, pointed out the technical detail that the photos are possible as the ISS "hurtles around our planet at an average speed of 17,500 mph." Pettit explained his methodology on the Flickr page:
My star trail images are made by taking a time exposure of about 10 to 15 minutes. However, with modern digital cameras, 30 seconds is about the longest exposure possible, due to electronic detector noise effectively snowing out the image. To achieve the longer exposures I do what many amateur astronomers do. I take multiple 30-second exposures, then stack them using imaging software, thus producing the longer exposure.
The results are stunning:
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