The Shenzhou spacecraft and its Long March 2F rocket are both at the launch site. Electrical checks on the spacecraft have been conducted. Things seem to be moving at a steady pace, and there are no signs of any problems that would impede the launch.

The anticipation for this launch is strong, but at the present, it's also slightly frustrating. We would love to get more news and more confirmation of the impending launch, but solid facts are only emerging at a trickle.

Sometimes no news is good news. Preparations at this stage in the launch process are somewhat routine and boring. The spacecraft and rocket must be integrated, checked, fuelled and checked again. The less excitement we find now, the better the odds of a successful mission.

China could possibly spice up its typically mundane media coverage of the flight with some human-interest stories or trivia, but so far, the style of reportage is very technical and lean. Outside of China's own media outlets and the aerospace media, there seems to be little coverage of Shenzhou 10.

This style of media coverage has become as familiar to Shenzhou watchers as the sequence of events leading up to a launch. It's partially a product of China's somewhat arcane policies of protecting "state secrets", a label which is somewhat ill-defined, and can apply to just about anything that China's leaders don't want to discuss.

It's also a reminder that in China, as elsewhere in the world, space isn't a major focus for the general media or the general public.

We are probably on the brink of a new wave of publicity for the mission, which will probably swing into action in the days leading up to the flight. When this happens, we can probably expect a smattering of new information, and a re-hash of a lot of existing knowledge of the flight.

Analysts have been speculating on everything from the names of the astronauts to the length of the mission. Some of these educated guesses are based on technical issues, others are based on organisational factors. It will be interesting to compare these guesses to the truth, but right now all we can do is speculate on these points.

For the moment, spacewatchers are in a sort of "countdown hold" as they wait for new tidbits of information and the eventual rollout of the Long March 2F rocket to the launchpad. This will be the next big step in preparing this mission for flight. When that happens, the pace will quicken in the days to follow.

Dr Morris Jones has covered the Shenzhou program since 1999 for SpaceDaily.com. Email morrisjonesNOSPAMhotmail.com Replace NOSPAM with @ to send email. Dr Jones will answer media inquiries.

]]> Thu, 23 MAY 2013 22:52:19 AEST Xichang, China (XNA) May 03, 2013 - China launched a communications satellite, "Zhongxing-11", at 0:06 a.m. Thursday (Beijing time) from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China's Sichuan Province.

"Zhongxing-11" will be mainly used in providing commercial communications services for users in the Asia-Pacific region, according to a statement from the center.

The satellite was sent by a Long March-3B rocket into the preset orbit, the statement said.

It marked the 176th launch of China's Long March series of rockets.

Source: Xinhua News Agency

]]> Thu, 23 MAY 2013 22:52:19 AEST Sydney, Australia (SPX) May 01, 2013 - In a matter of weeks, the longest Chinese human space mission to date will lift off from a launchpad in Jiuquan. The Shenzhou 10 spacecraft will carry two men and one woman to a rendezvous with the Tiangong 1 space laboratory.

So far, everything seems to be on course for the launch of Shenzhou 10. We have heard no reports of technical problems and we have no reason to suspect that there are any major issues that would affect the mission.

The Shenzhou 10 spacecraft is a duplicate of the Shenzhou 8 and 9 spacecraft, produced to the same design and manufactured roughly in parallel to its predecessors. Its predecessors both performed well on their missions, which also involved dockings with Tiangong 1. We can expect a similar level of reliability from Shenzhou 10, both from its design heritage and the experience China has gained with these previous missions.

Let's turn our attention to Tiangong 1. This small laboratory module, marginally larger than the Shenzhou spacecraft that fly to it, has been quietly circling the Earth for months without a crew.

Tiangong 1 has received little media coverage since Shenzhou 9 completed its expedition to the module last year, but it would have continued to be monitored closely by mission controllers.

Previous Chinese media coverage suggests that Tiangong's vital signs can be monitored explicitly, with everything from the state of the cabin atmosphere to its power levels being checked. China would not be preparing Shenzhou 10 for launch if they suspected anything was amiss with Tiangong 1.

Now to the rocket. Shenzhou 10 will be launched by the Long March 2F launch vehicle, which has now launched several times with no major problems. The vehicle has been progressively tweaked and improved over more than a decade of operation, and now seems to be truly mature. Again, we can expect a flawless launch.

There are no major uncertainties or concerns over the state of the hardware for this mission. That's good. But mysteries still remain in areas that aren't so critical.

We still don't know for sure who will be on board the spacecraft. China had earlier confirmed that a woman would be aboard, and it was easy to conclude that she would be Wang Yaping. Wang is one of only two women in China's astronaut corps.

Her colleague, Liu Yang, became China's first woman in space on the Shenzhou 9 mission in 2012. This analyst does not expect her to fly again on this mission, or any others. So Wang is probably an easy bet for the flight.

We are less certain about the two men who will be on the mission, but we can make some educated guesses. The mission commander will probably be an experienced astronaut, in keeping with recent trends in Chinese space launches.

The other will probably be a rookie astronaut. With this in mind, several analysts (including this writer) placed their bets on Nie Haisheng and Zhang Xiaoguang.

Together with the aforementioned Wang Yaping, Nie and Zhang constituted the back-up crew for Shenzhou 9. It would be logical to move this crew to the prime position for Shenzhou 10, which is flying a very similar mission profile to Shenzhou 9. And yes, we have a veteran and a rookie. Nie Haisheng flew on Shenzhou 6, while Zhang Xiaoguang has not flown before.

There is probably a back-up crew for Shenzhou 10 that consists of three men, with one veteran astronaut and two rookies. It is more difficult to guess their identities.

Of course, we could still be wrong in our guesses about the prime crew for Shenzhou 10. We are also not sure of all the details of the upcoming mission. We know it will be longer and more complex than Shenzhou 9. We know that there will be some on-orbit maneuvering around the Tiangong laboratory.

We also know that the Shenzhou 10 spacecraft will carry additional supplies to compensate for the dwindling logistics aboard Tiangong 1. Beyond this, we don't know much for sure.

Crew activities on board Tiangong 1 will probably look very similar to the Shenzhou 9 expedition. Two astronauts will sleep on Tiangong while the third will stay on board Shenzhou 10, ready to act in the event of an emergency evacuation of the laboratory.

There will probably be more experimental work carried out during the longer stay aboard Tiangong. Some of the experiments could be more complex, and could involve the use of gear carried to Tiangong on board Shenzhou 10. As before, there will be extensive monitoring of the medical conditions of the astronauts themselves.

Most of these questions will be answered as the mission unfolds. We can expect extensive photography and video downlinks of the spacecraft and its crew during the flight. China handled the television coverage of critical events well during the last flight. We hope they will deliver the same results this time.

Dr Morris Jones is an Australian space analyst and writer. Email morrisjonesNOSPAMhotmail.com. Replace NOSPAM with @ to send email. Dr Jones will answer media inquiries.

]]> Thu, 23 MAY 2013 22:52:19 AEST Nanjing (XNA) Apr 22, 2013 - The space-tracking ships Yuanwang III and Yuanwang VI departed from a port in east China's Jiangsu Province on Tuesday morning for the upcoming space docking of the Shenzhou-10 spacecraft and Tiangong-1 space lab module.

The Shenzhou-10, China's new manned spacecraft, is expected to blast off sometime between June and August. Scientific experiments will be conducted in the lab module and science lectures will be broadcast to spectators on Earth.

According to the statement, the Yuanwang V will also sail for its mission soon.

Source: Xinhua News Agency

]]> Thu, 23 MAY 2013 22:52:19 AEST Sydney, Australia (SPX) Apr 03, 2013 - It's official. Wang Yaping, China's second female astronaut, will fly in space aboard the Shenzhou 10 spacecraft later this year. Chinese state media have confirmed her place on the mission in absolute terms. This is no longer rumour or speculation, but it's hardly a surprise.

Space analysts (including this writer) have treated this as a near-certainty for a long time. Their speculation was bolstered by stories that a woman would be included on the crew. With only two female astronauts in China, one of whom is probably no longer eligible to fly, the identity of Wang Yaping wasn't exactly hard to guess.

China's first female astronaut, Liu Yang, flew on the Shenzhou 9 mission last year. Although she remains an active astronaut in an official sense, most analysts expect that she will remain grounded in the future. She has gained a place in history, and China probably doesn't want to lose her in a catastrophic failure.

But mysteries remain about the crew of Shenzhou 10. We can say that there will be two other astronauts on board the spacecraft, both male. Beyond this, we have no official reports on their identities. The crew of Shenzhou 10 is still mostly in the shadows.

A pattern seems to be emerging with China's space crews. Missions now have an experienced veteran as their commander alongside the previously unflown "rookie" astronauts. This suggests that Shenzhou 10 will also be commanded by a veteran.

Long before Wang was officially confirmed for Shenzhou 10, analysts had firmed the odds on a likely crew for the mission. That crew was the alternative for the Shenzhou 9 mission. Wang Yaping was a part of this group. Her colleagues were Nie Haisheng and Zhang Xiaoguang. Nie is the veteran of the crew, having flown on Shenzhou 6. Zhang is a rookie from the original 1998 group of astronauts recruited for the Shenzhou program.

It still seems highly probable that this will form the prime crew for Shenzhou 10. It certainly fits the pattern. However, it is still possible that there has been a reshuffle of the Shenzhou 10 crew. Wang Yaping could be joined by one or even two different astronauts.

Flying the Shenzhou 9 backup crew would streamline crew training and procedures. It would also be consistent with the way that other space programs have "graduated" backup crews to prime crews for later missions.

Of course, we know very little of what happens inside China's astronaut corps. It is possible that one of the male astronauts has been ruled out for reasons that we cannot suspect. It has happened regularly to space travelers from other nations, sometimes just weeks before a flight.

China may also wish to alter the crew in order to fulfill certain mission objectives on Shenzhou 10. Although this mission will be generally similar to the flight of Shenzhou 9, which docked with the Tiangong 1 space laboratory, there could be some subtle differences in the experiments that will be performed. Has one of the other astronauts become a specialist in certain tasks? Again, it is unlikely, but not impossible.

It's understandable that releasing Wang Yaping's name early is useful, as it drums up interest in the mission. Everyone would like to see more women fly in space. However, China has traditionally announced entire crews with the one statement. If Nie Haisheng and Zhang Xiaoguang are on the mission, it makes sense to disclose their identities.

Perhaps we are seeing a compromise between the desire to publicize China's second female astronaut with the traditional pattern of secrecy of revealing Shenzhou crews, which are normally kept under wraps until shortly before the flight. Alternatively, some questions about the crew could still be unresolved.

This shadow crew is another intriguing issue for the upcoming mission. It raises more questions than it answers. Hopefully our questions will be resolved soon.

Dr Morris Jones is an Australian space analyst and writer. Email morrisjonesNOSPAMhotmail.com. Replace NOSPAM with @ to send email.

]]> Thu, 23 MAY 2013 22:52:19 AEST Beijing (XNA) Apr 01, 2013 - The Shenzhou 10 spacecraft, a planned Chinese manned spaceflight, has been taken to the Jiuquan Satellite Launching Center.

The spaceship was split into three parts and taken to the airport by trucks. Workers say, although the route was planned, the trucks stopped three times for checks.

At the airport, two flights carried the parts to Jiuquan. Shenzhou 10 is scheduled to launch between June and August. It will carry a crew of three astronauts to dock with Tiangong 1 module, which was launched in September, 2011.

See a video report here

]]> Thu, 23 MAY 2013 22:52:19 AEST Sydney, Australia (SPX) Mar 26, 2013 - In mid-2013, China's second woman in space is expected to lift off. Wang Yaping, a former air force pilot, is expected to be aboard the crew of the Shenzhou 10 spacecraft, which will fly to a rendezvous with China's Tiangong 1 space laboratory on a 15-day mission. This will represent the second launch of a Chinese woman into space. China's first female astronaut, Liu Yang, flew on board the Shenzhou 9 mission to Tiangong 1 in 2012.

Liu and Wang represent China's only two active female astronauts. Soon, both will have a mission under their belt. With an extensive program of human spaceflight planned for the years ahead, questions must be asked about the future of Chinese women in space. When can we expect to see more of them?

In the short term, this analyst expects that there will be a significant gap between the expected flight of Wang Yaping and the next launch of a woman from China. The structure of China's astronaut corps and the planning of the program in the next few years suggest that China will be in no hurry to fly another.

The Shenzhou 10 mission will be the second and final crewed expedition to the Tiangong 1 space laboratory. After this, we can expect a pause in Chinese crewed space launches while China prepares to loft the Tiangong 2 space laboratory, which is currently expected in 2015. It was disclosed in a somewhat oblique fashion that China has recently reshuffled the Tiangong program.

Originally, Tiangong 2 was expected to be slightly modified version of the Tiangong 1 module, with some improvements to its life-support system. A presentation by China's first astronaut suggests that China has now deleted this slightly upgraded laboratory in favour of a larger, more advanced spacecraft.

The "new and improved" Tiangong 2 has been expected for a long time, but it was originally expected to fly under the moniker of "Tiangong 3" once missions to the intermediate Tiangong 2 were completed. China has fast- tracked its development of the Tiangong module by going straight to a fully upgraded vehicle and losing the middle step.

This reshuffle is clearly good news for advancing China's spaceflight capabilities, but it poses a dilemma for assigning crews to space missions. Chinese crewed space launches are conducted sporadically, and China has a substantial and steadily ageing pool of unflown astronauts. There will be considerable pressure to fly more of them before they are judged too old or unfit for active service. If Wang Yaping finds her place aboard the crew of Shenzhou 10 this year, all of the remaining unflown Chinese astronauts will be men.

Losing the smaller Tiangong module means a loss of potential missions to that module. It seems probable that there will be several crews launched to the advanced Tiangong 2 module, but China has been coy about how many expeditions will go there.

This analyst suspects that overall, the fast-tracking of the Tiangong program also means fewer crews will be launched across the entire program. This will save money for China's pennywise space program, and this is also one potential reason why the program has been reshuffled. Clearing the decks of China's unflown spacemen will thus become more critical than ever, thanks to the reshuffle. But could a woman still be included on a crew to Tiangong 2?

Let's look at the options for a third female spaceflight for China. There is a general consensus amongst space analysts that Liu Yang, China's first woman in space, will not fly again. She is probably judged too valuable to be sent on any more risky space launches.

It is possible that Wang Yaping will remain on active status as an astronaut after her own first mission. This analyst would not rule out the possibility that Wang could make a second flight in the future, possibly on one of the final expeditions to the Tiangong 2 laboratory. China has already flown some of its male astronauts twice. Sending the same woman on a second mission could have its advantages. Apart from her experience in actually working in space, physiological differences between the first and second missions could also be explored.

China will need to recruit more female astronauts in the future, but it will probably be at least three more years before this happens. The next group of females will probably be recruited alongside the next group of males, when China selects its third group of astronauts. This next "class" will probably be selected in preparation for the launch of China's modular space station, which is expected to be launched around 2020.

So far, all of China's astronauts, male and female, have been Air Force pilots. The third group will probably be more diverse. We can expect more pilots but there will probably also be scientists, doctors and engineers. This will provide the broader range of skills required for work on the space station. Some of the pilots could still be women, but this analyst expects that the next female astronauts will probably be drawn from other professions.

It's important to remember that the crew of Shenzhou 10 has still not been officially announced, and Wang Yaping could possibly not be included. If so, we could probably expect to see her fly aboard one of the expeditions to Tiangong 2. Or Wang could simply disappear from flight schedules altogether.

Whatever happens in the near future, China will probably steadily increase its flight rate for female astronauts in the decades ahead. Recruiting more women in the next astronaut intake would be a good sign for their future.

Dr Morris Jones is an Australian space analyst. Email morrisjonesNOSPAMhotmail.com. Replace NOSPAM with @ to send email. Dr Jones will answer media inquiries.

]]> Thu, 23 MAY 2013 22:52:19 AEST Scarborough, UK (SPX) Mar 13, 2013 - In the past couple of weeks, Chinese news agencies and newspapers have carried a number of stories about the upcoming mission. The sources are official with the main one being the China Manned Space Engineering Office (CMSEO).

February 28, Xinhua reported CMSEO as saying the Shenzhou 10 spacecraft final assembly was complete and factory testing was in progress with transport to the Jiuquan launch site being the next stage. Construction of the CZ-2F launch vehicle was said to have been completed along with testing. Astronaut training was reported as on schedule with the launch site, the tracking network and support teams ready to run the mission. Tiangong 1 was also said to be ready and in good condition.

On February 4, the 42.8 degree inclined Tiangong 1 orbit had been boosted to 348 x 370 kilometres to counteract the effects of air drag over the previous few months. It will be back down to Shenzhou's 314 kilometre operating height around the end of July. Only a small adjustment will be needed to make it available a few weeks earlier.

Shenzhou 10's mission will carry on almost precisely from where Shenzhou 9 left off. China has flagged this as the first 'operational' Shenzhou flight. It probably indicates that engineers consider there are no fundamentally new challenges, everything in the programme has either been done before or has an objective that builds on what has already been achieved.

One mission objective is to bring spaceflight to the attention of China's youth and to do this, the crew is aiming to provide an interactive science/engineering lesson from orbit for college students.

Shenzhou 8 and 9 docked with Tiangong 1 by matching its orbit and approaching from in front, and for the manual re-docking of Shenzhou 9, the alternative of approaching from behind was tried.

Shenzhou 10 will match Tiangong 1's orbit but with slightly more eccentricity. Doing this will allow it to come in slowly from below using the vertical "R-bar" approach that is routinely performed by vehicles joining the ISS.

CMSEO's mission description refers to both automatic and manual dockings indicating that, as with Shenzhou 9, the initial automatic docking will probably be followed by undocking part way through the mission and a manually controlled re-docking with the crew then going back inside Tiangong 1 to complete the mission.

In November last year, CMSEO said Shenzhou 10 will fly for fifteen days in the period from July to August. During that time, there are three launch windows, each covering about six days. They open on June 7, July 15 and July 28.

The middle one is probably not a contender as it leads to touchdown late-afternoon/evening in the landing zone, limiting the daylight hours available to recovery crews. The other two lead to near-dawn landings and have the added advantage of retro-fire occurring on the sunlit arc of the orbit, permitting the crew to do a visual check on spacecraft orientation.

In order to match orbit with Tiangong 1, a launch from Jiuquan on June 7 will be late-morning UTC, leading to landing in the early hours of June 22 (also UTC) in Mongolia. An indicator that the mission is on-schedule for this launch window will be if the spacecraft is moved to the launch site during the first few days of April.

Names of the crew will be announced shortly before launch. China will make the choice, probably from a pool of six astronauts, when they have completed training. One snippet made available says that there is a desire to include a female crew member. Shenzhou 9 carried Liu Yang, one of two trained female astronauts, to Tiangong 1 in 2012 but the likelihood of her flying an immediate second mission is low. The prime candidate is Wang Yaping, the second Shenzhou 9 female trainee.

Once Shenzhou 10 has departed, Tiangong 1 will be on its own. There are no further visiting missions planned, and the docking unit will have used up its six rated 'lives'. Tiangong 1's fate will probably be similar to other unwanted spacecraft - to end its days with a controlled, destructive re-entry, and any fragments that make it through the atmosphere will likely end up at the bottom of the southern Pacific Ocean.

There is a more-detailed version of this article with explanatory diagrams and a detailed mission timetable at the zarya.info web site

Robert Christy has been analysing and documenting space events since the early 1960s and currently provides information via his web site

]]> Thu, 23 MAY 2013 22:52:19 AEST Beijing (XNA) Mar 07, 2013 - China's fourth launch center, located in tropical island province of Hainan, will be ready for space launch in two years, said a member of China's top political advisory body.

The launch center, which has been under construction since 2009, will be able to launch space station capsules and cargo ships, Zhou Jianping, designer-in-chief of China's manned space program, told Xinhua on Saturday.

The carrier rockets to be launched in the Hainan center include Long March-7 and Long March-5, said Zhou, a member of the National Committee of Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).

Construction of the Hainan Space Launch Center, the lowest latitude one in China, started in September 2009 in Wenchang City, on the northeast coast of the tropical island province.

The center will be mainly used for launching synchronous satellites, heavy satellites, large space stations, and deep space probe satellites. It is designed to handle up to 10-12 rocket launches a year.

China currently has three space launch bases, namely, the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the desert of northwest China's Gansu Province, the nation's only manned spacecraft launch center; the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in north China's Shanxi Province, capable of launching satellites into both medium and low orbits; and the Xichang Satellite Launch Center, mainly to launch powerful-thrust rockets and geostationary satellites in southwest China's Sichuan Province.

The three launch sites have carried out over 100 space launches, sending over 100 satellites into space.

However, the three launch centers are all landlocked in western or northern plateau and mountainous regions, lack commercial development and are inconvenient for transportation.

Long Lehao, a carrier rocket expert with the Chinese Academy of Engineering, previously said that rockets to be launched from Wenchang would consume less fuel to get into orbit, because of its better location.

"A satellite launched from Wenchang will be able to extend its service life by three years as a result of the fuel saved from the shorter manoeuvre from the transit orbit to the geosynchronous orbit," Long said.

Source: Xinhua News Agency

]]> Thu, 23 MAY 2013 22:52:19 AEST Beijing (UPI) Feb 28, 2013 - China has announced a tentative time period for its next manned space craft launch that will dock with the country's orbiting space laboratory.

Three Chinese astronauts will man the Shenzhou-10 spacecraft when it launched sometime between June and August, the office of the country's space manned program said in a statement Thursday.

It is intended to dock with the orbiting lab module Tiangong-1, China's state-run news agency Xinhua reported.

The Tiangong-1 was launched into orbit in September 2011. It docked with the Shenzhou-8 unmanned spacecraft in November 2011 and with the Shenzhou-9 manned spacecraft in June 2012.

The mission will further assess the performance of the docking system, the combination's capabilities in supporting life and work, and the performance of astronauts in the lab, officials said.

Building on its experience with the Tiangong module, China says it plans to build its own full space station around 2020.

]]> Thu, 23 MAY 2013 22:52:19 AEST Subscribe to our daily selection of space, military, environment and energy newsletters responseText http://visitor.constantcontact.com/manage/optin/ea?v=0016gbbKsaiGSpQFojVO8ZoHw%3D%3D