Chinese Manned Space Programme Overview
The turning point in the manned spaceflight came in the early 1990s, when Deng Xiaoping finally stepped down as the Chinese leader. His successors were much more enthusiastic towards the manned spaceflight. In a report to the PRC leadership in November 1990, the space industry admitted that it was down to the politicians, not scientists, to decide whether to go ahead with the manned spaceflight programme. However, at the same time the report also reminded the leadership that the PRC was in danger of falling behind other nations in the field of space technology.
The PLA also decided to lend its critical support to the manned spaceflight programme. A report to the party and government by the top military leader General Liu Huaqing advocated the benefits that could be brought to the nation by the manned spaceflight programme. After that things began to move quickly. In March 1991, the government consultant and leader of the Project 863-204 Ren Xinmin was called to a meeting with the then Chinese Premier Li Peng. During the meeting, Ren presented the development plan for PRC’s manned space programme, using the existing CZ-2E booster to launch a manned non-reusable capsule into orbit. Five days after the meeting, the official approval was issued to initiate the feasibility study on the manned spaceflight programme.
In 1991, a joint committee was formed with members from CALT, CAST, SAST, and Space System Engineering Research Centre (710 Institute). Three spacecraft design proposals were submitted by CALT, CAST, and SAST respectively. Russian space lecturers were invited to the PRC to brief Chinese engineers on the technology and experience of the Soyuz spacecraft. Twenty young Chinese engineers were sent to Russia in 1992 for a two-year study in manned spaceflight technology.
On 8 January 1992, the Central Special Committee held its fifth meeting to specifically discuss the manned spaceflight. During the meeting, Ren Xinmin presented a 10% scaled model of a three-module manned spacecraft design to a panel of senior government and military officials and top space scientists. The committee concluded that it was necessary for PRC to start developing the manned spaceflight technology for political, economical, scientific, and military reasons, and that the manned spaceflight programme should begin with the capsule spacecraft.
Following its 7th meeting chaired by Li Peng in August 1992, the Central Special Committee presented a memorandum signed by all members detailing a three-step development plan for China’s manned space programme:
- Phase 1: To launch two unmanned spaceflight missions and a manned mission before 2002.
- Phase 2: To grasp the space docking by 2007, and to launch a temporarily man-tended “Space Laboratory” that weights eight tonnes using docked spacecraft
- Phase 3: To build a permanent space station of 20 tonne weight.
The plan also aimed to launch the first unmanned experimental flight mission by 1998, or no later than 1999.
The memorandum was submitted to the Central Commission of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the State Council, and the Central Military Commission (CMC) for approval.
Project 921
On 21 September 1992, the CCP Politburo held a hearing meeting chaired by the then Chinese President Jiang Zemin and attended by senior officials from the Ministry of Aerospace and the Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence (COSTIND). During the meeting, the Chinese leadership unanimously supported the manned spaceflight programme. This historical meeting marked the beginning of an era of fast development in the Chinese space programme. The programme was therefore given a codename Project 921 to memorise this date.
Project 921 was much more than developing a manned spacecraft and a launch vehicle. More importantly, the PRC leadership hoped that through the implementation of the programme the country could modernise its space infrastructure and train a new generation of talents in space science and technology to succeed the Western-educated older generation who returned to the PRC in the late 1940s and early 1950s.
The first phase of the Project 921 entered full scale development in 1993 under tight security and high secrecy. The PLA formed the 921 Office to oversee and coordinate the programme. Russia provided a range of technologies to assist the programme, including the rocket motor, Soyuz re-entry capsule, and Sokol spacesuit. In September 1994, Chinese President Jiang Zemin visited Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre in Russia, and a deal was signed in March 1995 for two Chinese military pilots—Wu Jie and Li Qinglong—to train alongside the Russian cosmonauts. They returned in 1998 to join a team of twelve astronaut candidates selected from over 800 PLAAF fighter pilots.
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| The Chinese spacesuit resembles the Russian Sokol spacesuit design (Source: Chinese Internet) |
The building work of a new launch site at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre (JSLC) and a spaceflight command and control centre in Beijing had been completed by 1997. The development of the CZ-2F launch vehicle also reached its final stage. A sixteen month overhaul of China's Yuanwang space tracking ship fleet was completed in Shanghai in January 1999, with the fourth ship joining the fleet in July of the same year. Preparation for the first unmanned launch began in late 1998. In mid 1999, an Internet source photo revealed a CZ-2F launch vehicle being assembled in the vertical assembly building at the Jiuquan centre.
On 20 November 1999, the first unmanned experimental spacecraft, named Shenzhou, was launched into space from Jiuquan. The re-entry capsule returned to the scheduled landing site in Inner Mongolia successfully after 14 orbits of the earth in 21 hours and 11 minutes.
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