Shenzhou 7 mission thread

[Belisarius]

You Tube vid of the successful return

Congratulations to mission control and crew for a successful mission.

Orbital rendezvous mission next up?

 

[Lunar_Lander]

So that was it for this time. I also would like to congratulate them all for this performance!

@Belisarius: Shenzhou 8 could be an unmanned craft with experiments onboard and Shenzhou 9 the vehicle which delivers three or four Taikonauts there to make a first space station.
Wikipedia rumors that 8 will receive docking ports on both ends, 9 will then be a freight ship and Shenzhou 10 will be the crew ship. For that, though, they'll need to develop auto-dock.

 

[unussapiens]

For that, though, they'll need to develop auto-dock.

They could pilot it from earth, but I think they will take it as an opportunity to develop autodock.

 

[SiberianTiger]

Would you say that's any more true than it is for NASA and Roskosmos? After all, the penalties for failure are huge for all of them. And for NASA it seems the (political/PR) benefits of success are pretty small.

This may be true for NASA, but it's a quite opposite situation in Russia. One can screw up anything and get away with it - no problem as long as your social/material status is tall enough. If an accident gets really bad publicity, some low-level performer scapegoat might be found. Good feeling responsibility is the feature that was lost since Communist times, and in many cases, it's terribly missed.

 

[cr1]

I really hope there's an addon to simulate Shenzhou 6 and 7 (maybe even 8-10)...
Right now we have Shenzhou 1 and 5 addon (congratulations to the developers!)
Personally I'm Chinese so I'm really interested in this

I discovered Orbiter two years ago, discovered this forum half a year ago and I'm posting only now... Hope this would be a fun place

EDIT: How did this forum know I'm Chinese and put that Chinese flag on my profile??

 

[dougkeenan]

Not only that, it knows you're going to develop the Shenzhou 6-10 addons!

Just kidding (though why not?). Welcome to the forum!

 

[Belisarius]

I really hope there's an addon to simulate Shenzhou 6 and 7 (maybe even 8-10)...
Right now we have Shenzhou 1 and 5 addon (congratulations to the developers!)
Personally I'm Chinese so I'm really interested in this

I discovered Orbiter two years ago, discovered this forum half a year ago and I'm posting only now... Hope this would be a fun place

EDIT: How did this forum know I'm Chinese and put that Chinese flag on my profile??

Welcome, I think you're the first Chinese member here. Just the other day I was thinking how strange it was that we didn't have anyone from China here.
About the flag...Tex and the admins can confirm this, but I guess the forum software read the ISP of your computer and did the rest.

 

[GregBurch]

I really hope there's an addon to simulate Shenzhou 6 and 7 (maybe even 8-10)...
Right now we have Shenzhou 1 and 5 addon (congratulations to the developers!)
Personally I'm Chinese so I'm really interested in this

I discovered Orbiter two years ago, discovered this forum half a year ago and I'm posting only now... Hope this would be a fun place

Ni hau! huan ying!

 

[VF2_Rolf]

The launch has become irreversible after the loading...

Isn't this a tad dangerous when combined with a manned space mission? Or any mission...? What if one of the ground crew says: 'Where's my screwdriver? I think I left it on/around the rocket...somewhere.'

Launch anyway?

 

[Urwumpe]

Launch anyway?

You can delay launch for some time, but the oxidizer in chinese rockets is pretty corrosive. Draining the rocket should be in theory always possible, but it is not always practical. When draining means you have to rebuild valves and pipes, it is not really useful.

You can say, that you only have two options from some point on: Launch or write the rocket off, have the pad occupied for as long as it takes to remove it and scrap it.

 

[VF2_Rolf]

I see. N2O4 is the oxidizer on such a machine if I recall. I suppose you wouldn't want that on your cornflakes.
:lol:

It seems a rather 'do or die' way to conduct space missions.

So, if there was a serious delay you'd have to hook up the hoses again and try to pump it out 'by hand', so to speak? If so, that can't be particularly safe. I read your earlier post that the Proton has an automated system for this proceedure.

Just seeing if I understand this properly...perhaps the Chinese need new range safety procedures before something bad happens.

 

[Urwumpe]

Well, also other launch vehicles use N2O4, for example the Ariane 4, but I don't know which measures they would have done in case of a launch abort.

I know that Russian ICBMs which use N2O4 are lost, once you arm the propellant supply systems (destroy the membranes which keep the fuel and oxidizer inside the tanks).

 

[VF2_Rolf]

I suppose the Titan II used hypergolic fuels as well...Aerozine 50. When the one aborted on the pad, do you happen to know the procedure that NASA used to relaunch the vehicle after the first abort? Did they 'drain the tanks' or did they leave the oxidizer aboard the rocket?

Thanks for the replies, Urwumpe. Been away for a while.

 

[Urwumpe]

Well, I know from Gemini 2, that the rocket was drained of all fuels and recycled in 48 hours in a launch abort.

 

[streb2001]

I really hope there's an addon to simulate Shenzhou 6 and 7 (maybe even 8-10)...
Right now we have Shenzhou 1 and 5 addon (congratulations to the developers!)
Personally I'm Chinese so I'm really interested in this

Shenzhou 6 and 7 and Shenzhou X (an as yet fictional future flight to dock with ISS) are currently in development. Slow development, but development.

s2k1

 

[Belisarius]

Great work there, looks fantastic.

 

[cr1]

Wow. Thanks for letting us know about the addon (personally makes me feel better for some reason) It looks pretty good
Keep up the good work!

I've checked some of the Chinese news websites; it doesn't seem to say anything about this fuel safety issue

Finally, thanks all for the warm welcome

@gregburch: xie xie ni!

EDIT: And... it feels weird to be the first Chinese on this forum...!

 

[Woo482]

does that addon posted above have ummu ?

 

[VF2_Rolf]

That Shenzhou looks great.

cr1: As you can see, there's quite the international group here. You can post your location on the Orbiter Map. Welcome to the forum.
http://orbinauts.dansteph.com/

 

[streb2001]

does that addon posted above have ummu ?

That version is in development and yes, it will have UMMU.