Author Topic: Shenzhou 10 (SZ-10), Long March 2F/G (CZ-2F/G) - Jiuquan - June 2013 (Read 153360 times)

tonyq · « **Reply #120 on:** 05/20/2013 10:20 pm »

Several Chinese websites now have mock-ups of the planned philatelic material for SZ-10

http://store.cpcc-studio.cn/product_detail-84.aspx

Based on previous experience, the silhouettes in these mock-ups will be the real images which eventually appear on the finished versions. The taikonaut at the back, is clearly a woman, presumably Wang Yaping

tonyq · « **Reply #121 on:** 05/22/2013 07:50 am »

TG-1 has made a significant change of orbit overnight, as shown here.

http://www.zarya.info/Diaries/China/Shenzhou/Tiangong1.php

This is presumably part of setting up the track for rendezvous with SZ-10. I'd expect Zarya to have a full analysis of the implications later in the day.

Galactic Penguin SST · « **Reply #122 on:** 05/22/2013 11:28 am »

Today's report: all testing of the spacecraft has been completed and the launch team has given a GO for spacecraft fuel loading.

tonyq · « **Reply #123 on:** 05/22/2013 01:57 pm »

If my machine translation of the posting on 9ifly is correct, this authorisation for fuelling was given on 18th May?

Galactic Penguin SST · « **Reply #124 on:** 05/22/2013 02:25 pm »

Quote from: tonyq on 05/22/2013 01:57 pm

If my machine translation of the posting on 9ifly is correct, this authorisation for fuelling was given on 18th May?

Affirmative.

So probably fueling has already happened.....

Man I would love getting L2 status reports for at least the manned spaceflight missions, but as you know, we are dealing with the Chinese.....

tonyq · « **Reply #125 on:** 05/22/2013 08:54 pm »

I have now tracked down philatelic covers featuring images of the individual SZ-10 crew members.

Based on experience with SZ-7 and SZ-9, these will be the real photos of the real crew, in silhouette, for the time being.

http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=2013.1.0.113.tMWFP9&scm=1007.77.4.0&id=18352769310&pvid=0fe8af49-23d1-4cd1-b374-d53cbbf11bdd&ad_id=&am_id=&cm_id=&pm_id=

The website says they will be released on 3rd June, which implies the crew will be identified by that date.

tonyq · « **Reply #126 on:** 05/22/2013 11:49 pm »

Thanks to some detective work by Rui, the top image, on the latest link, has been exactly matched to a known image of Nie Hiesheng.

The bottom image is almost certainly a woman's, so must be Wang Yaping.

The centre one is less certain. It could be Zhang Xiaoguang, but there are hardly any images of him to compare with.

However, taken together, this does look like the SZ-9 back-up crew, which is what has been widely anticipated for some time.

lucspace · « **Reply #127 on:** 05/23/2013 06:25 pm »

In those first day covers, there is a graphic element that I guess is the Shenzhou-10 mission patch; it has the same SZ-TG depiction as in the SZ-9 patch.

Galactic Penguin SST · « **Reply #128 on:** 05/24/2013 02:09 pm »

Status report:

Rocket: Stacked inside the VAB, team conducted 4 general inspections of the rocket systems. Fairing encapsulation of SZ-10 will be done over the next few days.

Spacecraft: All modules have been completely topped up with fuel by yesterday, with gas bottles filling to be completed today. Then SZ-10 will be installed onto the fairing.

Mission control: Flight team continues their mission simulations (undergoing since May 6). Looks like the flight software and emergency manuals has been signed off and readiness reviews are undergoing ahead of the launch.

Landing site: The landing site recovery team is now stationed on the Mongolian grasslands and doing practices ahead of the full system simulation later on.

Source: http://www.spacechina.com/n25/n144/n206/n214/c427399/content.html

Satori · « **Reply #129 on:** 05/25/2013 08:40 pm »

According to unconfirmed reports on the 9ifly Chinese space forum, the launch date will be June 9th.

Galactic Penguin SST · « **Reply #130 on:** 05/25/2013 08:55 pm »

Quote from: Satori on 05/25/2013 08:40 pm

According to unconfirmed reports on the 9ifly Chinese space forum, the launch date will be June 9th.

This would be more in line with the days to launch estimation for launch vehicle arrival at launch site - roughly 37 days to launch on May 3 leads to launch around June 10.

Another evidence that supports the June 9 date is that the launch time on that day is around 10:35 UTC - close enough to the SZ-9 launch time.

Plus I think the new PRC leader Xi Jinping should still be in the US on June 7 - surely he would be back to Beijing to watch the launch at mission control.

Liss · « **Reply #131 on:** 05/26/2013 07:50 am »

I would note that both SZ-8 and SZ-9 launch dates were selected to exactly match some high profile international events with top Chinese leaders as participants.

Galactic Penguin SST · « **Reply #132 on:** 05/26/2013 10:39 am »

Now another source indicates launch on June 11 (which would be at ~09:40 UTC on that day).

tonyq · « **Reply #133 on:** 05/26/2013 12:04 pm »

I do get the impression that the dates on 9ifly are little more than guesses, with no clear rationale behind them.....

The possible launch dates are 7th/9th/11th/13th. If the target date is 11th, then they only have one contingency date, 13th, prior to being forced to scrub to the next window.

All the key milestones from the shipping of SZ-10 back on 31st March, to the fuelling, earlier this week have followed the timeline of both SZ-8 and SZ-9, pointing towards a launch on 7th or possibly 9th. So, unless there has been a delay which has caused the Chinese to 'use up' one or more of their contingency dates, there is no rationale to support the 11th as the target date.

Satori · « **Reply #134 on:** 05/28/2013 05:31 pm »

According to http://scitech.people.com.cn/n/2013/0528/c1007-21648124.html (in Chinese) there was a rescue drill of the coast of Shanghai.

Galactic Penguin SST · « **Reply #135 on:** 05/29/2013 07:21 am »

The fairing was installed around SZ-10 on the morning of May 27.

I checked the mission progress of SZ-9 last year at around the same point, and I found out that SZ-9 was moved to the fueling support building on May 26 of last year - 21 days before launch. This time SZ-10 was moved to there on May 19.
So May 19 + 21 days = June 9.

Plus given the time of the fairing installation, I still believe June 9 is the target launch date and not June 11. If so then the spacecraft will be transported to the VAB and stacked on Friday, and the rocket will roll out on June 2. Let's see if I am right!

Also included are 2 photos of SZ-10 and its orbital module that I have missed - they were taken in early April, shortly after it was flown into Jiuquan.

Satori · « **Reply #136 on:** 05/31/2013 11:33 am »

Stacking of SZ-10 with CZ-2F/G probably tales place today.

tonyq · « **Reply #137 on:** 05/31/2013 12:07 pm »

Quote from: Satori on 05/31/2013 11:33 am

Stacking of SZ-10 with CZ-2F/G probably tales place today.

Very likely. Reviewing the SZ-9 timeline, if the launch is planned for Sunday, 9th June, then we should see the following milestones in the next few days:-

Sunday 2nd June - Stack rolled out to launchpad and taikonaut crews arrive at JSLC

Monday 3rd June - Taikonauts undertake ceremonial tree-planting etc. (Photos released?)

Tuesday 4th June - Full launch rehearsal, with crew boarding SZ-10 at the pad

Saturday 8th June - Media blitz, with official press conferences and release of crew biographies etc.

All that said, in the case of SZ-7, the crew were officially named 10 days before launch, so perhaps the plan can be more fluid.

Eolomea · « **Reply #138 on:** 05/31/2013 03:52 pm »

I think that some taikonauts from the 1996-group are now retired because age or military rank limits. I believe that these men are Li Qinglong, Wu Jie, Yang Liwei, Fei Junlong, Chen Quan, Zhao Chuandong(?). These men are older when 48 years, generals or national hero´s. I´m not shure, that this group includes the "chinese Leonov" Zhai Zhigang(the "original" flew twice) (and Liu Yang). If my "theory" is ok, the number of commanders are limited to Liu Boming and Zhai Zhigang. The role of flight engineer/pilot goes in this composition to Zhang Xiaoguang and Deng Qingming, these for the operator/payload-specialist to Wang Yaping and the last unflown taikonaut of 1996-team, Pan Zhanchun.

tonyq · « **Reply #139 on:** 05/31/2013 11:48 pm »

This is possibly not quite the right place for this, as there is another thread about Chinese crewing policy and patterns, but for continuity, I'll post here.

The Chinese are pretty secretive about their astronauts, especially those who haven't flown, so solid information is elusive. I think you are probably right about most of your retirees, although I don't know your source for including Zhao. I assume that you are including Wu and Chen as ex-back-ups, who were older, and who have now disappeared. Li has been described in the Chinese media as a 'former astronaut.' A unique official designation, in China, I think.

Zhai may well be grounded as he is the Chinese Leonov, (who did ofcourse fly twice!!). I think we'll have a better idea when we see who the back-up SZ-10 commander is. My money is on Liu Buoming.

You are probably right, that Deng and Pan, as the youngest of the unflown guys will be in the SZ-10 back-up crew too.

It does seem to me that China needs to recruit another batch of astronauts fairly soon, in order to have a realistic pool ready for Space Station missions, from c 2016-8 onwards.