06-001 China Space Program, a very brief history – Part 1

06-001

China Space Program, a very brief history – Part 1

Ever since the successful launch of the Shenzhou 5, China's first crewed mission in space on October 15, 2003, we became the third nation in the world to launch a human into orbit. And just before the end of 2022, we have started our first crew rotation on our Tiangong Space Station.

Lt. Gen. Nina M. Armagno, the director of staff for the U.S. Space Force, made this comment. "I think it's entirely possible they could catch up and surpass us, absolutely," she said. "The progress they've made has been stunning, stunningly fast."

In the first post of this new chapter, I am going to quickly go through the history of our space program. I will talk about when and where did we start from? What we have achieved in all these years? And as a Chinese myself, is there anything to proud of? If yes, what? If no, why?

From Mao to Tiangong-2

Everything starts from a failure.

China’s space dream can be dated back to the 60s. When Mao saw our comrade already sending several people to the space and our enemy was even going to land people on the moon, on July 14, 1967, he decided we should catch up. An ambition plan, named as Project 714, was to send people into orbit within the next 5 year.

Every people knows what happened in the following years in China. Cultural Revolution fowled everything up. The nation was even struggled for staple food. Sending people to the space at that time was similar as asking South Sudan to host the next World Cup.

Project 863 and 921

Dream continued after everything was settled. A new crewed space program was proposed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences in March 1986, which was later named as “Project 863”. “Project 863” ultimately evolved into the 1992 “Project 921”.

[2003] Yang Liwei, our first taikonaut

I am going to skip all those initial tests and uncrewed missions of “Project 921” in between. Please refer to Wikipedia if you want to know the details.

Shenzhou 5

On 15 October 2003, China launched our first human space mission, the Shenzhou 5, into orbit. The astronaut is Yang Liwei. The mission lasted 21 hours. The Shenzhou spacecraft made 14 orbits and reached an apogee altitude of 336 km. China became the third country in the world to have independent human spaceflight capability after the Soviet Union (later, Russia) and the United States.

So, what we have achieved up to this point?

Actually, Shenzhou 5 is merely a launch of a crewed space capsule into orbit. Yang has no control of the flight. The mission is similar to Gagarin’s Vostok 1, which our comrade managed to do this in 1961.

But, our Shenzhou 5 is nearly 2 times heavier than Vostok 1. And Yang made 14 orbits but Gagarin only made 1. Yang’s mission lasted 21 hours but Gagarin’s was less than 2 hours. And we also flew further.

Interior of Shenzhou 5, how "spacious" it is!

Shenzhou 5 is more comparable to Vostok 2, which was also launch in 1961. Although the mission time of Vostok 2 is slightly longer than that of the Shenzhou 5, Vostok 2 is lighter than Shenzhou 5 and we still flew further than Vostok 2.

Is there anything to proud of?

No, not really. Although Shenzhou 5 is heavier and presumably bigger, USSR managed to complete the mission 42 years ahead of us. Anyway, it was still a good start.

[2005] Shenzhou 6

Two years later in 2005, we saw another human spaceflight from China, with 2 new taikonauts on board. The mission lasted for 4 days and the spacecraft completed 76 orbits. Technically, the mission is similar to the Shenzhou 5 only that the spacecraft is bigger to accommodate 2 crews. Meals were provided and there was also a toilet on board.

Shenzhou 6

So, what we have achieved up to this point?

Shenzhou 6 is comparable to Voskhod 1. We skipped the footsteps of the remaining Vostok missions and jumped directly to follow close with Voskhod 1 by sending more than 1 crews into the same spacecraft. Although Voskhod 1 carried 3 people, the spacecraft is designed to carry only 2. And mission time of Shenzhou 6 is 4 times longer than that of Voskhod 1.

Is there anything to proud of?

No, not really. Up to this moment, we just managed to repeat what USSR has achieved 41 years ago, in 1964.

[2008] Shenzhou 7

Just weeks after Beijing Olympics, in 2008, we sent 3 taikonauts to the space in the same spacecraft. Shenzhou 7 is not only larger in size than the previous Shenzhou spacecrafts, we also successfully carried out our first EVA, making China the third nation in the world to have conducted an EVA.

Shenzhou 7

So, what we have achieved up to this point?

Up to this moment, we have overachieved USSR’s Voskhod missions. We have squeezed 3 crews into a bigger spacecraft and conducted a longer spacewalk.

Our first spacewalk

Is there anything to proud of?

Technically, not much. Our comrade managed to do the same 43 years ago.

 

In the next post, I will bring you to the our own space stations, the Tiangong-1 & 2 space labs and the Tiangong Space Station, an orbital space station with a size comparable to Mir.

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