Shenzhou-10 Lands Safely in Inner Mongolia
Chinese Manned Shenzhou-10 Spacecraft Lands Safely in Inner Mongolia [Watch], SpaceRef
“The Chinese Shenzhou-10 landed safely in Inner Mongolia at 8:08 p.m. ET (8:08 a.m. Beijing time) returning the three astronauts to Earth after a 15 day mission. The astronauts were reported to be in good shape and feeling well. Nie Haisheng, Zhang Xiaoguang and Wang Yaping performed experiments and did two docking tests with the orbiting Chinese space lab module Tiangong-1, one automatic and the other manual.”
With this mission successfully completed, I’d say that the Chinese space program has accomplished the equivalent of Project Gemini. The only thing I can think of that they haven’t done is the tethering of two spacecraft, but since that was done in Gemini as an experiment to validate a theory, it doesn’t really require repeating.
Gemini didn’t do an automated rendezvous with a pressurized semipermanent laboratory, nor did it have a crew of three presenting live interactive lectures to students. Although modeled on Soviet designs, the Chinese spacecraft are well beyond their progenitors and are (at least until Commercial Crew kicks in) the most sophisticated manned spacecraft flying.
Agreed. My point is that they’ve done everything that Gemini did, so they are now past the Gemini stage and into Apollo. It’s worth noting that they got this far in a roughly equivalent time frame to the US but (allegedly) did it with a lot less money. It makes a big difference when someone else has already been through the learning curve. Still, they’ve earned my respect for their accomplishments.
So there will be a two-year gap between the landing of Shenzhou 10 and the launch of Tiangong-2. How about filling it with a Shenzhou docking to the ISS on a short mission? Can’t think of a better way for the U.S.and China trying to strive for co-operation and mutual trust before things get too far (ie. armed conflict).
I’m all for having a Shenzhou dock with ISS. However even if it was decided today to do it, I think it would take at least two years before it happens. That’s how long it took between when Shuttle/Mir was announced and when the first Shuttle/Mir docking occurred. And they had a head start with ASTP.
There’s a mountain of coordination and cross-training needed as the American and Russian teams at all levels of operations will have to become familiar in great detail with the counterpart Chinese operations. And there will be lots of face to face meetings to work out the personal, cultural and language differences. It’s all good but it takes time.
Also what will the Chinese astronauts do while at ISS, other than being space tourists? Russian, U.S., ESA and JAXA astronauts all have plenty do to working in their respective modules. Since the Chinese don’t have a module on ISS (at the moment anyway) then I guess they would just hang out, unless they are trained for specific tasks in one of the other country’s modules, which also will take time.
All the more reason to get the ball rolling on this now instead of later since so much is involved.
I agree 100% however Frank Wolf (R-VA) will block any US-China collaboration as long as he is allowed to.