LIVE: Shenzhou 7 Mission Updates

[Liss]

I'm totally shocked because I've just made a COLA calculation of ISS / Shenzhou 7 distances. This day, at 15:07:23, the two manned spacecraft will pass only 36 kilometers from each other!!!


Target satellite perigee:   348.04 km
Target satellite apogee:    357.08 km
Velocity at perigee:     7.7007 km/sec
TLE collision search file: sz7.tle

COLA will search for satellites having altitude ranges
that intersect the range from    98.04 to   607.08 km,
and that come within ***** km of the target satellite at
a time within +/-   5.0 days of both satellite epochs.


Satellites in range of ISS:    1

   Date     UTC Time   Norad           Name           Range (km) NdAng EphAge

 9/27/2008  0:40:00.29 33386 Shenzhou 7                 1867.7    81.3  -0.21

 9/27/2008  1:25:38.18 33386 Shenzhou 7                 1741.3    82.0  -0.18

 9/27/2008  2:11:18.25 33386 Shenzhou 7                 1672.0    82.0  -0.15

 9/27/2008  2:56:56.52 33386 Shenzhou 7                 1545.0    82.8  -0.11

 9/27/2008  3:42:36.21 33386 Shenzhou 7                 1475.9    82.8  -0.08

 9/27/2008  4:28:14.88 33386 Shenzhou 7                 1348.5    83.5  -0.05

 9/27/2008  5:13:54.19 33386 Shenzhou 7                 1279.5    83.5  -0.02

 9/27/2008  5:59:33.22 33386 Shenzhou 7                 1151.6    84.3  +0.01

 9/27/2008  6:45:12.17 33386 Shenzhou 7                 1082.9    84.1  +0.04

 9/27/2008  7:30:51.56 33386 Shenzhou 7                  954.6    84.9  +0.08

 9/27/2008  8:16:30.17 33386 Shenzhou 7                  886.2    84.7  +0.11

 9/27/2008  9:02:09.89 33386 Shenzhou 7                  757.5    85.5  +0.14

 9/27/2008  9:47:48.18 33386 Shenzhou 7                  689.3    85.1  +0.17

 9/27/2008 10:33:28.21 33386 Shenzhou 7                  560.3    85.9  +0.20

 9/27/2008 11:19:06.20 33386 Shenzhou 7                  492.4    85.2  +0.23

 9/27/2008 12:04:46.53 33386 Shenzhou 7                  363.1    85.7  +0.27

 9/27/2008 12:50:24.23 33386 Shenzhou 7                  295.7    84.2  +0.30

 9/27/2008 13:36:04.84 33386 Shenzhou 7                  166.2    83.3  +0.33

 9/27/2008 14:21:42.27 33386 Shenzhou 7                  100.4    76.3  +0.36

 9/27/2008 15:07:23.15 33386 Shenzhou 7                   36.6    61.0  +0.39

 9/27/2008 15:53:00.33 33386 Shenzhou 7                  101.9    76.6  +0.42

 9/27/2008 16:38:41.46 33386 Shenzhou 7                  230.0    84.6  +0.46

 9/27/2008 17:24:18.41 33386 Shenzhou 7                  297.2    84.3  +0.49

 9/27/2008 18:09:59.75 33386 Shenzhou 7                  426.9    85.8  +0.52

 9/27/2008 18:55:36.50 33386 Shenzhou 7                  493.6    85.3  +0.55

 9/27/2008 19:41:18.05 33386 Shenzhou 7                  623.8    85.7  +0.58

 9/27/2008 20:26:54.60 33386 Shenzhou 7                  690.1    85.2  +0.62

 9/27/2008 21:12:36.34 33386 Shenzhou 7                  820.5    85.2  +0.65

 9/27/2008 21:58:12.72 33386 Shenzhou 7                  886.5    84.8  +0.68

 9/27/2008 22:43:54.63 33386 Shenzhou 7                 1017.0    84.6  +0.71

 9/27/2008 23:29:30.85 33386 Shenzhou 7                 1082.6    84.2  +0.74

 9/28/2008  0:15:12.92 33386 Shenzhou 7                 1213.2    83.9  +0.77

 9/28/2008  1:00:49.01 33386 Shenzhou 7                 1278.5    83.5  +0.81

 9/28/2008  1:46:31.21 33386 Shenzhou 7                 1409.2    83.2  +0.84

 9/28/2008  2:32:07.17 33386 Shenzhou 7                 1474.0    82.8  +0.87

 9/28/2008  3:17:49.50 33386 Shenzhou 7                 1604.7    82.5  +0.90

 9/28/2008  4:03:25.36 33386 Shenzhou 7                 1669.1    82.1  +0.93

 9/28/2008  4:49:07.78 33386 Shenzhou 7                 1799.8    81.7  +0.96

 9/28/2008  5:34:43.56 33386 Shenzhou 7                 1863.8    81.4  +1.00

 9/28/2008  6:20:26.07 33386 Shenzhou 7                 1994.4    80.9  +1.03

 9/28/2008  7:06:01.77 33386 Shenzhou 7                 2058.0    80.6  +1.06

 9/28/2008  7:51:44.36 33386 Shenzhou 7                 2188.6    80.1  +1.09

 9/28/2008  8:37:20.01 33386 Shenzhou 7                 2251.7    79.8  +1.12

 9/28/2008  9:23:02.64 33386 Shenzhou 7                 2382.2    79.3  +1.15

 9/28/2008 10:08:38.26 33386 Shenzhou 7                 2444.8    79.0  +1.19

 9/28/2008 10:54:20.93 33386 Shenzhou 7                 2575.2    78.5  +1.22

 9/28/2008 11:39:56.52 33386 Shenzhou 7                 2637.3    78.2  +1.25

 9/28/2008 12:25:39.22 33386 Shenzhou 7                 2767.5    77.7  +1.28

 9/28/2008 13:11:14.81 33386 Shenzhou 7                 2829.2    77.4  +1.31

 9/28/2008 13:56:57.52 33386 Shenzhou 7                 2959.2    76.9  +1.34

 9/28/2008 14:42:33.11 33386 Shenzhou 7                 3020.4    76.6  +1.38

 9/28/2008 15:28:15.81 33386 Shenzhou 7                 3150.1    76.1  +1.41

 9/28/2008 16:13:51.43 33386 Shenzhou 7                 3210.8    75.8  +1.44

 9/28/2008 16:59:34.11 33386 Shenzhou 7                 3340.3    75.3  +1.47

 9/28/2008 17:45:09.76 33386 Shenzhou 7                 3400.5    75.0  +1.50

 9/28/2008 18:30:52.42 33386 Shenzhou 7                 3529.7    74.4  +1.53

 9/28/2008 19:16:28.11 33386 Shenzhou 7                 3589.4    74.2  +1.57

 9/28/2008 20:02:10.72 33386 Shenzhou 7                 3718.2    73.6  +1.60

 9/28/2008 20:47:46.48 33386 Shenzhou 7                 3777.4    73.4  +1.63

 9/28/2008 21:33:29.03 33386 Shenzhou 7                 3905.8    72.8  +1.66

 9/28/2008 22:19:04.86 33386 Shenzhou 7                 3964.4    72.6  +1.69

 9/28/2008 23:04:47.35 33386 Shenzhou 7                 4092.5    72.0  +1.72

 9/28/2008 23:50:23.26 33386 Shenzhou 7                 4150.6    71.7  +1.76

[astrowiki]

19:27PM(GMT+8), the subsat, BanXing, was successfully released.

Any video snapshot?

[Norm Hartnett]

I'm totally shocked because I've just made a COLA calculation of ISS / Shenzhou 7 distances. This day, at 15:07:23, the two manned spacecraft will pass only 36 kilometers from each other!!!

Just a little reminder that they can get there.

If, for some reason, the ISS international partnership continues to refuse to allow China to become a member they should, at least, offer them the opportunity to drop by for a visit, perhaps after China has demonstrated docking capability.

[dawei]

Press Conference going on now on CCTV.  Questions about the challenge of opening the hatch and the false fire alarm.  (Good questions with excellent English translation)

Hatch opening was harder than expected and will lead to analysis to aid future missions.  They were not concerned about fire alarm after it was discovered to be in the orbital module which was in a vacum state (no oxygen to burn).  Sensor error.  No impact on mission. 

[eeergo]

Very interesting calculation Liss, thank you!

I wonder if they will try to make observations of the ISS (at 36 km they should be able to just see it?), while probably for the ISS crew it would be more difficult to see S-VII.

[dawei]

More press conference answers:

Re-entry will be roughly five PM tomorrow (Beijing time).  Exact time to be determined. 

Re-entry is difficult but not a new experience for China.  Will be serious and cautious.

There will be more hangtianyuan (astronauts) selected in the future.  Hong Kong and Macau hangtianyuan will be selected at some point.  There is no timeline for selecting female hangtianyuan (yet).  Eventually in the "not so distant future" female hangtianyuan will be selected.   

[eyesineyes]

Very interesting calculation Liss, thank you!

I wonder if they will try to make observations of the ISS (at 36 km they should be able to just see it?), while probably for the ISS crew it would be more difficult to see S-VII.

I believe I saw a satellite passing by quickly while taikonaut was returning back into OM. 

[dawei]

Two factors in using EVA suits from both Russia and China. 

1. Testing Chinese suit performance and mastering technology.

2.  Russian suit is well tested and improves safety of this EVA.

Only after testing yesterday was it decided which suit would be worn outside.

[dawei]

Length of EVA:  Goal was to complete EVA goals - not meet a minimum time.  The length was roughly as planned (20 minutes).

[dawei]

EVA completed all planned goals.  No get aheads were planned or attempted.

Another conference tomorrow night at 8:30 PM Beijing time.

[dawei]

Impressive news conferene (IMO).  Only truly lame question was from a Western reporter fishing for problems to report on.

[dawei]

Info on satellite released 2 hours after EVA (from CCTV)

Less than 40 kg
2 cameras - will photograph SZ-7
Camera range: 4m to 2km

[eyesineyes]

The subsat was released.
1. Demonstration of subsat orbit
2. Pictures from the subsat

[eyesineyes]

Re-entry will be at 17:40 PM (GMT+8)

[Chris Bergin]

Impressive news conferene (IMO).  Only truly lame question was from a Western reporter fishing for problems to report on.

Wasn't the AP was it? Hope the Chinese know that's totally in character.