China effectively introduced the Shenzhou 14 project at its Tiangong station on Sunday morning, June 5 at 02:44 UTC, or at 22:44 EDT on Saturday, June 4.
The manned launch of 3 taikonauts took position from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in China, and the Shenzhou spacecraft was put into orbit via a Chang Zheng 2F (CZ-2F) rocket from a platform as Space Launch Site 1.
The Gang
The project commander is Chen Dong, a veteran of the Shenzhou project in October 2016. Born on December 12, 1978, Dong holds a master’s degree in engineering from Xi’an Jiaotong University and is a fighter pilot in the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Air Force with the rank of colonel.
He was decided as a taikonaut of the China National Space Administration (CNSA) in 2009. He received the Space Flight Merit Medal (Third Class) for his service on the Shenzhou 11 mission.
He is married and has two children.
Joining Dong at Shenzhou 14 is Liu Yang, who will take over as operator.
Yang was born on October 6, 1978 and became China’s first female taikonaut when she participated in the Shenzhou nine project on June 16, 2012.
He graduated from Pla Air Force Aviation University in Changchun, Jilin Province, China. Since then, he has reached the rank of colonel and is an army transport pilot.
She is part of the same taikonaut organization at the moment as Chen Dong.
Reports in China imply that she gave birth to her first child in early 2015.
The third and final member of the team of this flight is Cai Xuzhe, who is making his first area flight. Xuzhe will serve as the formula operator for the mission.
He is a member of the PLA Air Force.
the spacecraft
For this mission, the team flies in Shenzhou, the backbone of China’s manned spaceflight program.
Shenzhou is a Soyuz-inspired capsule that was first introduced in 1999 and has since worked as intended.
The spacecraft has a launch mass of 7,840 kg, a length of 9. 2 five meters and a width of 2. 8 meters. It has an interior volume of 14 m3. Its first crewed launch on the Shenzhou Five project in October 2003.
Shenzhou, like Soyuz, has 3 distinct modules: orbital, re-entry and service. The orbital module is basically used for accommodation and service of the free-flying crew. It also carries clinical tools and a payload for the station.
The re-entry module is the component of the medium. It has a heat shield and is the component of the vehicle that will return with the team to Earth at the end of the mission, recently scheduled for December 2022.
The spacecraft’s final component is its service module, which includes solar panels, life aid and propulsion to guide the loose flight phase of the project to and from the station.
Tiangong Space Station
Overall, the main goal of Shenzhou 14 is to bring a new team of three people to the Tiangong Space Station that lately includes its first module, the Tianhe Central Module.
The shenzhou 14 team, unlike the previous two Tiangong teams, will feature the installation and integration of Wentian and Mengtian laboratory modules.
Wentian (“Quest for the Heavens”) will be Tiangong’s first laboratory module. Its launch is scheduled for July 23, 2022 aboard a Chang Zheng 5B rocket.
Wentian will only supply area for conducting clinical experiments, but will also provide the station with more propulsion and solar force to develop its operational capabilities.
The laboratory module of the moment, Mengtian (“Dreaming of the Heavens”), is expected to be maintained later this year, until October. It will also be presented through the Chang Zheng 5B.
Mengtian’s addition will increase the station’s length and functions to the recently planned maximum and will largely mark the end of the Tiangong Space Station Assembly.
Fully built, Tiangong will weigh about a hundred tons. It is one-fifth the mass of the International Space Station and is about the same length as the former Soviet/Russian space station, Mir.
Shenzhou 14 is also the beginning of the permanent room on the Tiangong Space Station. The plan, once the clinical modules are added, is to make direct transfers between crews.
Tiangong Station (modular) succeeds Tiangong-2 Station and is expected to be operational for 10 to 15 years.
Lately there are more than 1,000 experiments shortlisted for the station, missions in fluid physics, tissue science and life sciences.
The station orbits at an altitude of about 389 km with an inclination of 41. 58 degrees and an orbital velocity of 7. 68 km/s. It takes 92. 2 minutes to complete a single orbit.
The rocket
The rocket in charge of launching the shenzhou 14 team, the Chang Zheng 2F. It is a two-stage launcher that is basically used for team flights in China. It is a component of the first generation of Chang Zheng cars that still use the hypergolic mixture of fuel and oxidizer. instead of RP-1 and liquid oxygen as more fashionable rockets.
Including Shenzhou-14, the Chang Zheng 2F has been presented 17 times with a one hundred percent good fortune rate.
With a height of 62 meters and a takeoff weight of 464,000 kg, the Chang Zheng 2F can 8,400 kg in low Earth orbit.
The CZ-2F’s 4 first-level YF-20B engines deliver 3,256 kN of take-off thrust with a fast pulse of 259 seconds at sea level. Attached to the first level, 4 liquid thrusters, with the same type of engine Together, the thrusters provide an additional thrust of 3256 kN for a total take-off thrust of 6512 kN.
Each thruster is 15. 3 meters long with a diameter of 2. 3 meters. After liftoff, they will be the first to separate from the rocket, leaving the core of the first level to do the rest of the atmospheric flight.
The first level constitutes the bulk of the rocket, with a mass of 196,500 kg and a duration of 23. 7 meters. It will separate from the level of the moment after its combustion and fall back to Earth.
After that, the step begins.
This level is 13. 5 meters long and 3. 4 meters in diameter, just like the first level, and includes a YF-24B engine only that provides a thrust of 831 kN. The express impulse of the engine is 289 moments. This momentary step will bring the orbit of the spacecraft to the meeting window of the Tiangong Space Station before separating and leaving the Shenzhou capsule in loose flight.
(Main image: Chang Zheng 2F takes off. )
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