Project 921 (Phase II)
Last updated: 21 April 2008
The second phase of the Project 921 manned spaceflight programme, or Project 921-II, commenced in 2005 after the completion of the Shenzhou 6 mission. During this phase, extra-vehicular activities (EVA) and space docking operations will be carried out, eventually leading to the creation of a ‘space lab’, an 8-tonne weight temporarily man-tended mini space station. The programme will lay foundation for the future permanently-manned space station in the third phase of the Project 921.
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| The Chinese indigenous EVA spacesuit displayed during an exhibition (Source: Chinese Internet) |
The first flight mission of the Project 921-II—Shenzhou 7—was originally scheduled in 2007. However, this mission has been postponed to October 2008 due to the delay in the development of the EVA spacesuit. The 100kg spacesuit developed by the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST) can support an EVA mission of up to seven hours. However, a more recent report revealed that the PRC has already imported several sets of the Orlan EVA spacesuit system from Russia. Which design will be used in the Shenzhou 7 mission has yet been decided.
Despite the heavy resemblance to Russian Soyuz missions in both spacecraft and spacesuit design, the Shenzhou 7 mission will still be a fresh challenge to the PRC—Russia has rarely conducted EVA directly from the Soyuz spacecraft, and the modern Orlan spacesuit has only been used in EVA from the space station. The Orlan suit has to be specially modified in order to fit the size of the Shenzhou 7’s hatch.
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| Ground simulation of the EVA operation (Source: Chinese Internet) |
Once the EVA mission succeeds, the following missions will carry out rendezvous docking. A Russian-style androgynous docking system has already been successfully tested at the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology (SAST), according to Chinese media. During the next flight mission, an unmanned target spacecraft Shenzhou 8 with two docking ports will first be launched into the orbit.
The first docking operation would be carried out using a second unmanned spacecraft Shenzhou 9. The docking operation would be controlled by the ground command station with no astronauts carried inside the spacecraft. Then a manned spacecraft (ShenZhou 10?) would be launched to dock with the pre-docked ShenZhou 8 and Shenzhou 9 modules. This docking operation will be carried out under the control of the mission crew.
Finally, a temporarily man-tended mini space station, or “Space Lab”, will be launched into the orbit. This stations allows test of various techniques required for the future permanently-manned space station. A further few flight missions may be carried out before the Project 921 moves into the third phase.
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| The Space Lab simulator at the CAST (Source: Chinese Internet) |
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| Artist impression of the Space Lab in the orbit (Source: Chinese Internet) |
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| A model displayed by CAST during an exhibition showing the Space Lab docked with a Shenzhou spacecraft (Source: Chinese Internet) |
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