China has taken one further step in its quest to conquer space exploration technologies when its 3 astronauts sent aloft on Saturday, 16th June. The 3 astronauts including the first Chinese female astronaut Liu Yang performed a complex manual docking procedure of their spacecraft Shenzhou 9 with the Chinese orbiting space lab Tiangong 1.
Rendezvous and docking between any two space crafts are an important step in acquiring the technological and logistical skills to possess a space station and a mature space exploration capability for any country. China is only the 3rd country after the USA and the Soviets/Russians to have successfully mastered the ‘manual’ docking procedure on indigenous space vehicles.
OTOH, the Japanese Kounotori meaning ‘White Stork’, the European ‘ATV’ and the SpaceX Dragon are the other unmanned spacecrafts which can automatically dock with an orbiting space station.
So there we have it. Yang, Wang and Jing are up in Tiangong, after getting the hang of docking to the capsule.
Hope they come back without a bang unlike the first Indian-born female astronaut!
(Yn)
Rendezvous and docking between any two space crafts are an important step in acquiring the technological and logistical skills to possess a space station and a mature space exploration capability for any country. China is only the 3rd country after the USA and the Soviets/Russians to have successfully mastered the ‘manual’ docking procedure on indigenous space vehicles.
OTOH, the Japanese Kounotori meaning ‘White Stork’, the European ‘ATV’ and the SpaceX Dragon are the other unmanned spacecrafts which can automatically dock with an orbiting space station.
So there we have it. Yang, Wang and Jing are up in Tiangong, after getting the hang of docking to the capsule.
Hope they come back without a bang unlike the first Indian-born female astronaut!
(Yn)
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