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Shenzhou

Shenzhou (“Sacred Vessel” or “Divine Vessel” in English translation) is a capsule-type Earth-orbital spacecraft, designed to fly in a 343km Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) inclined at 43°. The spacecraft vehicle is capable of carrying up to three astronauts. It can either operate independently in the orbit for up to 7 days, or be used as a ‘space taxi’ to ferry astronauts between the ground and the space station.

Shenzhou was modelled after the Russian Soyuz-TM spacecraft vehicle, consisting of a forward cylindrical Orbital Module, an aerodynamic Descent Module, and an aft cylindrical Service Module. A launch escape tower is attached to the front-end of the vehicle during the launch.

Shenzhou is a one-mission, non-reusable spacecraft. A new example is built for each flight. The vehicle is launched atop the CZ-2F launch vehicle from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre. When the mission is completed, the Orbital Module and Service Module are discarded, while the heat-shield-protected Descent Module carrying the crew makes an unpowered ballistic descent through the atmosphere and then deploys a parachute for a soft-landing.

In early missions, the Orbital Module of the Shenzhou spacecraft also carried its own solar panel wings and flight control, so that it could continue flying in the orbit for another six months after the official flight mission had completed. On the finalised design, the Orbital Module is fitted with a docking port and associated tracking system for rendezvous with the space station.

There have been five variants of the Shenzhou vehicle that have flown in space:

Qi Fa-ren (戚发轫), the chief designer of China’s first satellite Dongfanghong 1, was appointed the chief designer for the Shenzhou programme in 1992 at age of 59. He was succeeded by his deputy Zhang Bai-nan (张柏楠) in 2004.


Shenzhou Missions

Mission Purposes Launch Crew Duration Orbits Recovery
Experimental prototype flight test 1999-11-20 Unmanned 21h 11m 14 1999-11-21
Prototype flight test 2001-01-10 Unmanned 6d 18h 22m 107 2001-01-16
Unmanned flight test 2002-03-25 Unmanned 6d 18h 51m 107 2002-04-01
Unmanned flight test 2002-12-30 Unmanned 6d 18h 36m 107 2003-01-05
First manned flight, one-man crew 2003-10-15 Yang Li-wei 21h 23m 14 2003-10-16
Two-man crew, multi-day flight 2005-10-12 Fei Ju-long
Nie Hai-sheng
4d 19h 33m 75 2005-10-17
Three-man crew, first EVA 2008-09-27 Zhai Zhi-gang
Liu Bo-ming
Jing Hai-peng
2d 20h 27m 45 2008-09-28
Automated docking with Tiangong 1 2011-11-01 Unmanned 16d 13h 33m 262 2011-11-17
First crewed visit to Tiangong 1 2012 ?      

Shenzhou Specifications

Gross mass (kg) 7,800
Overall length (m) 8.65
Diameter (m) 2.8
Solar panel wingspan (m) 19.4

Shenzhou Flight Profile

Apogee 345km
Perigee 335km
Inclination 43°

Last updated: 20 January 2012