I wish that the people who claim that the Chinese are going to land people on the Moon Real Soon Now would get together with the people who are watching how the Chinese actually meet their schedules.
WOW.... Shenzhou 9 will be launched in June.... UNMANNED!? That's beyond surprising! http://www.9ifly.cn/forum.php?mod=redirect&goto=findpost&ptid=964&pid=176961&fromuid=19646
Quote from: Galactic Penguin SST on 02/15/2012 05:01 amWOW.... Shenzhou 9 will be launched in June.... UNMANNED!? That's beyond surprising! http://www.9ifly.cn/forum.php?mod=redirect&goto=findpost&ptid=964&pid=176961&fromuid=19646If it's true, then it looks like they found more problems than we expected...
Quote from: apace on 02/15/2012 05:27 amQuote from: Galactic Penguin SST on 02/15/2012 05:01 amWOW.... Shenzhou 9 will be launched in June.... UNMANNED!? That's beyond surprising! http://www.9ifly.cn/forum.php?mod=redirect&goto=findpost&ptid=964&pid=176961&fromuid=19646If it's true, then it looks like they found more problems than we expected...If this is correct then it would explain the delay in the Shenzhou 9 launch beyond March and also the shift of Shenzhou 10 to next year.Have I missed something which indicates that there were some serious problems with Shenzhou 8?
If there were no problems with Shenzhou 8 and the problem is a delay in crew training pushing the first visit to Tiangong 1 beyond the module's operating lifetime, why not just fly the delayed Shenzhou 9 manned and shift Shenzhou 10 to Tianging 2 so that module hosts three visits?
Quote from: Phillip Clark on 02/15/2012 05:49 amIf there were no problems with Shenzhou 8 and the problem is a delay in crew training pushing the first visit to Tiangong 1 beyond the module's operating lifetime, why not just fly the delayed Shenzhou 9 manned and shift Shenzhou 10 to Tianging 2 so that module hosts three visits?Dunno. Even the Chinese are baffled on this piece of news. What is strange is that the same news report said that SZ-9 may see the test of hatch opening between SZ-9 and TG-1.
Quote from: Galactic Penguin SST on 02/15/2012 05:01 amWOW.... Shenzhou 9 will be launched in June.... UNMANNED!? That's beyond surprising! http://www.9ifly.cn/forum.php?mod=redirect&goto=findpost&ptid=964&pid=176961&fromuid=19646That's a post to an internet forum with only http://www.sina.com.cn/ given as the source. Do you have a better link?Reading the Google translation, it seems that Shenzhou 9 will pressurise the space between the docked vehicles, making sure there are no leaks. Maybe they had a problem with this on Shenzhou 8.
Quote from: Galactic Penguin SST on 02/15/2012 05:53 amQuote from: Phillip Clark on 02/15/2012 05:49 amIf there were no problems with Shenzhou 8 and the problem is a delay in crew training pushing the first visit to Tiangong 1 beyond the module's operating lifetime, why not just fly the delayed Shenzhou 9 manned and shift Shenzhou 10 to Tianging 2 so that module hosts three visits?Dunno. Even the Chinese are baffled on this piece of news. What is strange is that the same news report said that SZ-9 may see the test of hatch opening between SZ-9 and TG-1. My wierd humour has come up with the concept of a dummy astronaut being mounted on a catapult in SZ9 and when the hatches open it is fired from SZ9 to TG1 as the first crew transfer .......
What is strange is that the same news report said that SZ-9 may see the test of hatch opening between SZ-9 and TG-1.