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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:
- Flight prototype: Shenzhou 1
- Unmanned prototype: Shenzhou 2-4
- Manned variant: Shenzhou 5-6
- EVA variant: Shenzhou 7
- Formal production variant: Shenzhou 8 onwards
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