[Launch News] Shenzhou 9, Long March 2F, June 16, 2012 (mission updates)

[Galactic Penguin SST]

FINALLY! After waiting for more than 3 years, the Chinese are getting ready for their first manned space station flight ever. The crew of 3, including the first Chinese woman in space, will apparently stay at the Tiangong 1 mini-station for 10 days.

The rumored launch time is 10:41 UTC on June 16 (should be correct to the nearest 5 minutes), although the announcement has yet to be made. The crew performing the flight should be known by next week.

This thread will cover the whole mission from rollout (apparently scheduled on tomorrow) to landing.

Good luck!

[N_Molson]

Good thing to see another nation developping a manned space program.

[IronRain]

Quote:

Originally Posted by N_Molson

 Good thing to see another nation developping a manned space program.

Yes! Only to bad China isn't as public as NASA..

[Galactic Penguin SST]

It's 'rollin.....

[Galactic Penguin SST]

More photos of the roll-out:



















And a news report (in Chinese): http://news.cntv.cn/china/20120609/105025.shtml

[Zachstar]

Alright! This is going to be a great moment in space history as for the first time in many years there will be two manned space stations in Orbit. And with a successful mission I hope they will give the space program more funds to increase their flight rate.

[Galactic Penguin SST]

From rumors on English and Chinese forums, it looks like the June 16 launch date is secure. Apparently it was not a coincidence: on June 16, 1963, cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space on-board Vostok 6. And on June 18, 1983, space shuttle Challenger was launched on mission STS-7 with the first woman astronaut, Sally Ride.

Rumors are abound that the choice of China's first woman in space fell to 32 years old Wang Yaping, a transport aircraft pilot with the PLA air force (I believe her current rank is a Captain).

[Star Voyager]

Wow, she's pretty good-looking. I certainly hope the Chinese have lots of coverage for this mission !

[orb]

Here's O-F's calendar event for the launch. Here, you can request a reminder for it.


Spaceflight Now:

• Mission Status Center
  
  
• China is days away from launching three astronauts
  
  
• PHOTOS: Long March 2F rocket moved to launch pad (PHOTO GALLERY)

Zarya.info: Go For Launch!:

Quote:

{...} The aim is, two or three days after launch, to complete an automatic rendezvous to a distance of 150 metres and for the crew of three to conduct a manually- controlled docking. {...}

The [Jun 16, 10:39 UTC] date is the start of an approximately eight day launch window. The time is ±3 minutes.

Launch opportunities occur on alternate days, other possibilities are (UTC), all ±3 minutes:

• Jun 18 - 09:43
• Jun 20 - 08:47
• Jun 22 - 07:52
• Jun 24 - 06:56

Web TV coverage (Flash):
http://english.cntv.cn/live/

Web TV coverage (iPad):
http://english.cntv.cn/live/p2p/

More on the launch date (English):
http://www.zarya.info/Diaries/China/...09Analysis.php

More on the launch date (Chinese):
http://www.zarya.info/Diaries/China/...Analysiscn.php

Further notes:
http://www.zarya.info/Diaries/China/...Shenzhou09.php

Tiangong 1 orbit chronology:
http://www.zarya.info/Diaries/Launch...?year=2011#053

{...}

[Galactic Penguin SST]

The prime and back-up crews have arrived at the launch site on Saturday, and their identities are now known, as they have participated in a flag-raising and tree-planting ceremony (similar to the ones ISS crews now do at Baikonur) today:



From left to right: Wang Yaping, Zhang Xiaoguan, Nie Haisheng, Liu Yang, Liu Wang, Jing Haipeng



The commander seat will probably fell to either of two astronauts with prior flight experience: Shenzhou 6 flight engineer Nie Haisheng and Shenzhou 7 flight engineer Jing Haipeng. Either of them will pilot the spacecraft for a manual docking with Tiangong 1.





The "First Chinese woman in space" seat will be taken by Wang Yaping
(described above) or by 34 years old Liu Yang, a fighter jet pilot from the PLA air force (yup, she's also good looking too ).









The last member of this flight will either be Liu Wang or Zhang Xiaoguan, both from China's first astronaut class and has yet to fly.

[Zachstar]

A question to those with knowledge of the US law.

I know that congress made it pretty much forbidden for NASA to have anything to do with china period. However that does not forbid say the president inviting them to the white house after the flight no?

[Codz]

If it were allowed, I doubt it would happen. I don't think we ever allowed Yuri Gagarin or Alexei Leonov to come over after they completed their flights.

[Star Voyager]

We allowed Gherman Titov:

[Codz]

Interesting...here's an article from 1962 about his visit.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?ni...pg=5284,283178

[Marvin42]

I tired google but found nothing: what were those flecks of lights Titov saw?
Sorry for offtopic