LIVE: Shenzhou 9 (SZ-9), Long March 2F/G (CZ-2F/G) - Jiuquan - June 16, 2012

[lucspace]

It seems to me they will hate to rethink a lot of their hand- and foot-restraints; these loops on flexible surfaces don't seem very stable...

[Mapperuo]

All three inside now!

[Mapperuo]

Photo op!

[Chris Bergin]

Control room going wild at the photo op!

[tonyq]

I thought they had previously said someone was going to remain in SZ-9 at all times?

Didn't take long to abandon that rule!

[Mapperuo]

I though that had previously said someone was going to remain in SZ-9 at all times?

Didn't take long to abandon that rule!

CCTV also said the 2nd astronaut would not enter until 30 minutes after the first if I heard correctly, which didn't occur.

[Chris Bergin]

Right, that'll do it for me. Thanks to Aaron and Ron earlier, and everyone who joined in.

[tonyq]

Fantastic coverage, both from CCTV and everyone who chipped in to this thread. Thanks to everyone.

It's hard not to be mightily impressed by the quality and openness of the Chinese coverage and the way they have made something which is incredibly difficult, and which they are doing for the first time, look so routine. Congratulations to them on a brilliant show, so far.

[MikeMi.]

They mentioned interesting tech information - TG-1 and SH-9 use diffrent volt supply. TG-1 uses 100 volt DC if I heard correctly. I'm asking for confirmation of that Do we have "Mr. Tiangong" on board?

[woods170]

CCTV still running its normal news.

One for Rui... (Apologies to all the Dutch on here).

Hey, no offense. I actually made a little money by betting the Dutch nationaal soccer team would not win the match against Portugal. 

[Galactic Penguin SST]

Is it the second time ever that two space stations are simultaneously manned in orbit? (after Mir EO-28 / Soyuz TM-30 and STS-101 on ISS in May 2000)

[hektor]

Skylab Salyut ? Salyut 6/7 ? Salyut 7/Mir ?

[apace]

Talks about dozens of experiments in the next days. Comparing it to ISS. Not shy to point that Tiangong-1 is very small compared to ISS.

[Galactic Penguin SST]

Skylab Salyut ? Salyut 6/7 ? Salyut 7/Mir ?

During the Skylab flights the Soviets lost three space stations to launch failures and on-orbit lost of control (DOS-2/DOS-3(Kosmos-557)/Salyut-2), so they only made two flights during May 1973 - February 1974, of which the flight of Soyuz 13 coincides with the stay of Skylab 4.

The last crew on Salyut 6 (Kovalyonok/Savinykh) left on May 26, 1981, and Salyut 7 wasn't launched until April 1982.

The Soyuz T-15 crew (Kizim/Solovyov) went back and forth between Salyut 7 and Mir during their flight in 1986, but the two were never manned simultaneously.

[8900]

Congrat! Now we have two orbital space stations manned in LEO.
Just a few questions
1. It seems that they don't need glove and mask when entering TG-1, which ISS astronauts are required to put on before entering any new visiting spacecrafts.
2. The spacelab seems a little bit empty, a bit too neat and tidy, without all the racks and etc, only thing that stand out inside is the computer console.
3. The mission is surprisingly transparent to the outside world, given the inherent secretive nature of China's space program. With live videos inside the TG-1 and the SZ-9 showing its interior in HQ, great details can be seen for everyone who have internet connection. I remember last year some commentators suggest TG-1 maybe a military space station, now I think the suggestion probably becomes a myth as no military station will have its interior images and videos broadcast to the world in real time.

anyway, good job China. 2012 is really a great year for spaceflight: first commercial flight to ISS, first Chinese manned docking, and curiosity landing on Mars