Shenzhou 10

[rdfox]

That's not the first "direct rendezvous," or even the quickest, actually.

Typically, if memory serves, the Gemini missions that saw Agena docking attempts would rendezvous on their fourth orbit (the standard Gemini was a short-duration spacecraft, with supplies for a four-day mission when you factor in repressurizing after EVAs; the two long-duration missions were specialized models that sacrificed much maneuvering propellant and all EVA and docking capability to squeeze a 14-day mission duration out of the spacecraft). There was one (I want to say 11?) that did a *truly* direct rendezvous, basically launching directly into stationkeeping close enough to the Agena target vehicle that they were able to skip the rendezvous and go directly to flying the docking itself, thus docking on the very first orbit. To do this, they had the narrowest launch window of any mission before the Shuttle era--all of ONE second. Fortunately (and, for 1965, surprisingly), there were no delays and the holddown clamps released precisely at the start of the window, allowing this first-orbit docking to take place.

This was possible because the Gemini missions generally used data transmitted from the ground for rendezvous instead of computing it onboard--thus making it so that it wasn't critical that they get an accurate platform alignment before the rendezvous--and because Gemini was so cramped that the crew was stuck in their pressure suits for the entire mission, anyway, so it didn't make any difference in comfort for them. That said, the Gemini crews generally tried to get all the required platform alignment and other navigational fixes done themselves *before* the rendezvous, since that was going to be absolutely necessary for lunar rendezvous in the Apollo program. This also may have saved the Gemini 12 mission, since the spacecraft computer refused to accept rendezvous data from either the ground or manual entry, so Buzz Aldrin (whose MIT doctoral thesis on orbital rendezvous was the basis of NASA's rendezvous procedures), in the right seat, took over as a human rendezvous computer, processing the data himself and passing along instructions to his commander, Jim Lovell, who flew the rendezvous by hand.

[rodion_herrera]

So what happened? Was the docking successful? Why is there no news on the event?

EDIT: Scratch that...

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2013-06/13/c_132452444.htm

[Aladran]

Congratulation China! They will soon catch up Russia and USA.

[The Jedi Master]

Watched the launch video on the first page, when the boosters separated it looked like a huge fiery gust engulfed the rocket, and it sounded like Mission Control was saying "Oh, God!" in English... thought something had gone wrong.

Congrats, China! I have a feeling we're gong to have a Chinese flag on the moon sometime in this decade...

[tek_604]

BBC: Shenzhou-10: Chinese capsule docks with space laboratory

Everytime I watch a Chinese manned launch (I've watched Shenzhou 9 & 10, and Tiangong 1), the Chinese have always said, they know they are repeating Gemini at this point, and really are not interested in "catching" anyone else. They will do what they do, until they get a guy on the Moon.

[Michael Kim]

So what happened? Was the docking successful? Why is there no news on the event?

Chinese media are really quiet about Shenzhou-10 this time, compared to previous manned missions. News didn't come out until several days before launch. And the docking was not live broadcast on TV.

As I said, this is the first application flight of Shenzhou spacecraft, so the media are quiet probably because they want to send the message: "Get used to it, guys." lol

[Kryten]

Video of what is almost certainly the third stage from this launch re-entering over Brazil;

[czokletmuss]

More cool footage:

I guess NASA doesn't want to cooperate with CNSA (Chinese space agency) because they are afraid of industrial espionage (ergo China stealing US tech). But it seems that more and more Chinese presence in space is inevitable. And that's good! Space is not a place for a stupid flag-waving or misplaced patriotism - we should all cooperate for the betterment of mankind. Of course there are issues like national security (btw China is finishing building the GPS-equivalent) but remember - when in six months there will be rumours about cancellation of SLS program in USA or new problems with NASA's budget, China will be preparing to the first transimission from the surface of the Moon from 1976.

[Temstar]

So it was all over CCTV last night that the crew conducted a live "lesson from space" thing via video conference to school kids all over China. Experiments where demonstrated to explore microgravity.

I didn't catch the actual video but in the news I saw them do:

1. Pendulum experiment 1 - the crew set up a pendulum and released the weight, instead of swinging back and forth like a pendulum would do on the ground the ball just hang there slowly drifting towards the pivot due to tension in the string at the moment of release.

2. Pendulum experiment 2 - instead of just letting the weight go, this time the crew give the ball a push when they let it go and the ball just goes round and round around the pivot.

3. Gyroscope experiment - the crew took out two toy gyroscopes, spun one up and released them both. As the two gyroscope drifted they poked them with the fingers. The non-spinning gyroscope will start tumbling when they poke it but the spinning gyroscope maintains its orientation and only changed the direction it was drifting after poking. The crew then explains that this property of spinning objects to remain aligned to a fixed orientation in space is what spacecrafts use to keep track of direction. And in fact there are devices similar to the toy gyroscopes onboard this very space station that uses this property to control the orientation of their spacecraft

4. Water film experiment - the crew took out a metal ring and stuck it into a bag of water to make a thin film of water that acted much like a glass lens on Earth. They then keep adding droplets of water to the film until it grew to a large sphere of water kept together purely by surface tension.

Then they had a live Q&A session with a group of school kids to answer questions like if they could see stars out the window and did they twinkle and so on.

Nie Haisheng and Zhang Xiaoguang worked the camera and lights, Wang Yaping (the lady) did the presentation.

Edited June 21, 2013 by Temstar

[Michael Kim]

-snip-

The full video can be found on CCTV's website (in Chinese, of course): http://news.cntv.cn/2013/06/20/VIDE1371697681826708.shtml

Before the Pendulum experiment, the crew and kids talked about how to measure mass in space, and Nie demonstrated it (and he weighed 74kg )

[jwenting]

I guess NASA doesn't want to cooperate with CNSA (Chinese space agency) because they are afraid of industrial espionage (ergo China stealing US tech). But it seems that more and more Chinese presence in space is inevitable. And that's good! Space is not a place for a stupid flag-waving or misplaced patriotism - we should all cooperate for the betterment of mankind. Of course there are issues like national security (btw China is finishing building the GPS-equivalent)

1) yes, espionage is a big reason. China has stolen so much in military and other tech from the US lately they can't expect to be trusted anywhere near anything at all.

2) flag waving is a big part of the Chinese space program, and is a main reason the US and USSR had a space program at all (military access to space was second, private access to space a very distant third in the US and never a factor in the USSR).

3) see 1)

And yes, I agree China will be the next to the moon, and will almost certainly beat the US and USSR/Russia to Mars as well.

The US have given up on space, especially manned space, apart from keeping GPS and telcomsat constellations alive, Russia simply has no money for adventures.

I leave out Europe, who're both morally and economically bankrupt. Arianespace survives for now on government programs to launch Galileo sats that nobody wants except the EU government who want to show how they don't have to rely on the USA, the new arch enemy.

[Kerbface]

And yes, I agree China will be the next to the moon, and will almost certainly beat the US and USSR/Russia to Mars as well.

The US have given up on space, especially manned space, apart from keeping GPS and telcomsat constellations alive

Hang on, if the US see China land on the moon and then plan to go to Mars, we might have a second space race on our hands.

[jwenting]

Hang on, if the US see China land on the moon and then plan to go to Mars, we might have a second space race on our hands.

we won't, as the US doesn't even have the capability to send a man into space, let alone anything massive enough to get to the moon and won't have that for at least a decade, more likely 20 years, if ever, and they know it.

So the US is defeated before they even start.

[czokletmuss]

So the US is defeated before they even start.

I can imagine that for China this is one more argument to engage in something like this. CNSA is largely ignored in western media but it will soon change after live transmission from Moon, mark my words (I don't know whether they are planning something like this but they should - imagine video in HD from Moon with camera targeting Earth and zooming in)

[Kerbface]

we won't, as the US doesn't even have the capability to send a man into space, let alone anything massive enough to get to the moon and won't have that for at least a decade, more likely 20 years, if ever, and they know it.

So the US is defeated before they even start.

They don't NOW, but China's space projects are pretty new and they won't be on the moon, let alone going to Mars, for a little while yet. The SLS is underway, and if that fails, there's always SpaceX, so they won't need to use other countries to get to space in the future. And we didn't have anything in the first space race either, in fact that was the whole deal. Nobody did, and then VERY QUICKLY, both the US and Russia did. Because there was motive for the government to give a crap.

[comham]

we won't, as the US doesn't even have the capability to send a man into space, let alone anything massive enough to get to the moon and won't have that for at least a decade, more likely 20 years, if ever, and they know it.

So the US is defeated before they even start.

That is merely due to lack of will.

Of course, a space race with PRC would be different from a space race with the USSR, for obvious reasons. It would probably be slower.

[pebble_garden]

That is merely due to lack of will.

Let's not forget a lack of money. The US is teetering on the brink of economic collapse.

However, if the US did go to the moon again, I bet it would be to put a TSA checkpoint there. Just saying. Can't have any 'terrorists' on the Moon!

[Cesrate]

Whaaat? Cesrate take a picture!

I'm "near" the ascending trajectory, so what I could see is a light spot of engine exhaust. What's more, mostly it's cloudy.

[tavert]

The US is teetering on the brink of economic collapse.

2009 called. They want their prognostication of economic doom back.

[7499275]

Ok, back to topic of Chinese launch and off American economy although the economy here does suck...

I never even realized China has contributed to the I.S.S let alone have the capability to launch man into orbit. I know they have rocket technology but I never knew they saw a purpose to do so therefore they didn't.

[tek_604]

Ok, back to topic of Chinese launch and off American economy although the economy here does suck...

I never even realized China has contributed to the I.S.S let alone have the capability to launch man into orbit. I know they have rocket technology but I never knew they saw a purpose to do so therefore they didn't.

errr... China hasn't, and cannot contribute to the I.S.S; American law forbids it. They are docked to their own module, Tiangong-1.

Shenzhou 5 was the first Chinese manned flight, and occurred in 2003. 10 years ago... Sorry to ask, and I don't mean to sound mean, but, have you been hiding under a rock all this time?

[7499275]

errr... China hasn't, and cannot contribute to the I.S.S; American law forbids it. They are docked to their own module, Tiangong-1.

Shenzhou 5 was the first Chinese manned flight, and occurred in 2003. 10 years ago... Sorry to ask, and I don't mean to sound mean, but, have you been hiding under a rock all this time?

Haha, no I don't really follow what China does nor do I really give a crap. I thought they had contributed because I was skim reading on the first page and thought that's what it said, my bad.

[jwenting]

Haha, no I don't really follow what China does nor do I really give a crap. I thought they had contributed because I was skim reading on the first page and thought that's what it said, my bad.

they've not directly contributed, but I think you'll find a lot of "made in China" stickers on the stuff shot up there by the Americans and Europeans especially.