China to launch human space mission
Baku, March 1 (AZERTAC). As we approach the launch of China's next human space mission, some questions still remain unanswered. This is not unusual for the relatively veiled nature of China's space program, but it does invite speculation. What exactly will we see when Shenzhou 10, the next spacecraft to fly, lifts off?
We can make some fairly strong assumptions about the Shenzhou spacecraft itself. The vehicle probably has no major differences from Shenzhou 9, the mission that carried three astronauts to China's Tiangong 1 space laboratory in 2012. China seems to have frozen the basic design of Shenzhou, but there could be some minor (and invisible) changes to some of its sub-systems.
China has stated that Shenzhou 10 will carry additional logistics to permit a longer stay aboard Tiangong 1 than the previous expedition.
This is probably due to the fact that existing supplies on board Tiangong are not sufficient for an extended mission. The extension is a sign that China is doing more with Tiangong than was originally expected, and stems from the good performance of the spacecraft.
There will probably also be more experimental equipment carried aboard Shenzhou 10. Some of this could be moved into the laboratory for use, or operated on board Shenzhou itself.
Now to the crew. It is no secret that three astronauts will crew Shenzhou 10. China has also given hints that one of them will be a woman. As usual, the exact identities of the crew will probably remain officially concealed until shortly before launch.
This hasn't stopped analysts (including this writer) speculating on their names, and there is good reason to believe that these predictions will come true. It is widely expected that the crew of Shenzhou 10 will be Nie Haisheng, Zhang Xiaoguang and Wang Yaping.
Nie is a veteran astronaut who flew on Shenzhou 6 in 2005. Zhang is an unflown member of China's original group of astronauts. Wang is a rookie from China's second batch of astronauts and one of only two females in the entire astronaut corps. Her colleague, Liu Yang, became China's first woman in space on the Shenzhou 9 mission.
hese three astronauts represent the backup crew for the Shenzhou 9 mission. Keeping this crew intact and moving it up to the next mission would save time and effort in forming new crews. It's also consistent with practices in other human space programs, but this form of "graduation" for an entire back-up crew has never been seen before in the Chinese program.
Previous Chinese crewed space missions have made "graduation" for crews technically impossible. Prior to this mission, every Chinese astronaut launch was profoundly different from the previous one.
Although backup astronauts for previous missions would sometimes find themselves selected for subsequent flights, there was no direct transfer of entire backup crews. The differences in missions and in crew sizes simply did not allow for this.
China's first human spaceflight mission carried just one astronaut. Its second mission carried two, and flew a different mission plan. The same applied to the third mission, with three astronauts and a different mission entirely. The fourth (Shenzhou 9) also carried three astronauts but was the first mission targeted at occupying a space laboratory. Although Shenzhou 10 will have its differences from Shenzhou 9, this is the first time that a crewed Chinese mission has generally had the same format as its predecessor.
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