The Shenzhou 17 mission Chang Zheng- Long March 2F Yao 17 manned Carrier Rocket is about to be unveiled at the on the 19th October 2023 Thursday Hours Hong- Kong SAR – Beijing time CNSA –China National Space Administration …..
It is expected that on the morning of October 26, 2023, the “Shenzhou 17” manned spacecraft carrying three astronauts will be launched from the 921 station of the Jiuquan launch site by the “Long March 2F” Yao 17 carrier rocket. After separation, the spacecraft will use the rapid rendezvous and docking mode to ascend to the forward port of the “Tianhe” core module of the Chinese Space Station to carry out the third astronaut crew rotation mission of China’s manned space program.
It is expected that about a week before the launch, the “Long March 2F” Yao 17 carrier rocket. spacecraft and the “Chang 2F” Yao 17 rocket assembly will be vertically transferred from the 9001 vertical assembly test plant to the 921 launch station on the movable launch platform, and the launch mission will be transferred to the refuelling station. launch phase. During the launch station, the “Shenzhou 17” mission will organize joint training work such as full-system launch drills at the launch site and joint drills in the entire region to fully prepare for the launch work.
The “Shenzhou 17” manned spacecraft was developed by the Fifth Academy of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation. It adopts a three-cabin configuration in series, with the propulsion module, return module and orbital module in sequence from bottom to top. The total length of the spacecraft is 9 meters, the maximum diameter of the cabin section is 2.8 meters, and the take-off mass is no more than 8130 kilograms. The spacecraft can carry three astronauts to and from space, and can dock at the space station and fly for 6 months. At the same time, the spacecraft has the cargo capacity of 300 kilograms in the upward direction and 50 kilograms in the downward direction.
At present, the development and production of the “Shenzhou” manned spacecraft has entered the second batch of mass production. This batch plans to develop and produce 6 spacecraft from “Shenzhou 16” to “Shenzhou 21”, and “Shenzhou 17” It is the second spacecraft in this batch. Compared with the previous batch, the new batch of spacecraft has mainly been improved in two aspects. On the one hand, it continues to promote the domestic replacement of parts and components and further enhances its independent controllability; on the other hand, it has improved the human-machine interaction interface of the return capsule. Modernized and upgraded, more convenient and friendly.
The “Chang-2F” launch vehicle was developed by the First Academy of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation. It is a medium-sized two-stage semi-normal temperature liquid launch vehicle. It consists of a core first stage, a core second stage, and four boosters tied around the core first stage. , the main power of the entire arrow is dinitrogen tetroxide/uniform dimethylhydrazine propellant. The rocket currently in use is the “Chang 2F” improved version (CZ-2F/G), with a total length of about 58 meters, a take-off mass of about 496.82 tons, and a low-Earth orbit carrying capacity of not less than 8,130 kilograms.
By continuously eliminating weak links and optimizing the technical status, the reliability and safety of the “Chang-2F” rocket have been steadily improved year by year. By the time of the “ Long March 2F” Yao 17 carrier rocket., the rocket’s reliability evaluation results had increased to 0.9896, and the safety evaluation results had reached 0.99996. Safety 0.9896 means that there will only be 1.04 failures per 100 flights. Safety 0.99996 means that the rocket escape system will only have a 4/100,000 probability of failure when responding to failures.
“Shenzhou 17” is my country’s 17th “Shenzhou” spacecraft launch mission and the 12th manned launch mission. As usual, the astronauts will settle in Wentian Pavilion of Dongfeng Space City one week before the launch, and will participate in the joint inspection and testing of people, ships, rockets, and ground in the full-system launch drill organized by the launch site system, and “test drive” The “Shenzhou Seventeen” spacecraft. The day before the launch, the three astronauts of the “Shenzhou 17” crew will make their official debut.
Images and visuals are from their Respectives CMS China Manned SpaceCNSA-China National Space Administration
