China sends two astronauts to live onboard its space station.( Tiangong-2 space lab)

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

The Shenzhou-11 spacecraft blasted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in the Gobi desert.

Astronauts Jing Haipeng and Chen Dong will take two days to reach the Tiangong-2 space lab, or 'Heavenly Palace-2', which was launched in September.

The Tiangong-2 lab is in orbit 244 miles (393km) above Earth and has two cabins - an hermetically sealed experiment chamber that doubles as the living quarters, and a resources store holding supplies such as solar panels, engines and batteries.

The two astronauts on the Shenzhou-11 ('Divine Vessel') mission will test their own health in zero gravity, cultivate rice samples, and conduct research on cold atomic space clocks that use laser cooling technology to improve accuracy, among other projects, China Daily said.

They will be allowed a two-hour break every evening to watch movies, listen to music and make video calls home, it added.

 

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

Two Chinese astronauts have arrived at the Tiangong 2 space laboratory, in a mission aimed at developing China's capabilities as a space power.

The docking took place 393km (244 miles) above Earth and the remotely controlled procedure lasted about two hours, according to state media.

For rendezvous and docking, operations began at a distance of 52 km from the space module with the monitoring center system analyzing the parameters of Shenzhou-11. At this distance both spacecraft will have been able to read the relative position and velocity of each other.

The next phase of the automatic approach and docking operations began when the two vehicles were 20 km apart, as Shenzhou-11 moved towards the three Go/No Go points – at 5 km, 400m, 140m and 30m.

During these “parking points”, the relative position of the spacecraft were assessed by ground controllers before a go to proceed was given.

At 120 meters the taikonauts had the option to take manual control of Shenzhou-11 if this proves necessary. This process is common for docking vehicles of all nationalities.

During these rendezvous operations, Shenzhou-11 provided the role of the “active vehicle”, while the Tiangong-2 acted as the “passive vehicle”. At a distance of 30 meters, the docking mechanism was extended to achieve the soft docking with the orbital module.

As the distance between the two vehicles continued to close, the ground control data continued to increase in accuracy, allowing for the final approach and soft dock. This was marked at 19:24 UTC.

It took 15 minutes to provide a hard dock/seal between the two vehicles, which allowed the control center to adjust the cabin environment.

Once the leak checks were completed, the crew enter the module and began taking measurements into cabin pressure, oxygen capacity, air temperature and humidity, along with checks into potentially harmful gasses.

https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/201...ngong-2-latest-chinese-space-station-mission/

 

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

Tiangong 2 and the docked Shenzhou-11 spacecraft.

The Banxing-2 satellite, which is about the size of a desktop printer, was released from the space station on Sunday. The Chinese astronauts who boarded the station have been taking pictures using the satellite's 25-megapixel camera with wide-angle and infrared imagers.

Banxing-2, which was developed and built at the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology (SAST), is tasked to photograph Tiangong 2 in orbit and perform a rendezvous exercise with the orbiting laboratory. It is composed of three solar panels, which could generate enough power to capture images of the station and the spacecraft. The 47-kilogram satellite is also equipped with an ammonia-based propulsion system and achieves a thrust of 85 Millinewtons and a specific impulse of 102 seconds, Spaceflight 101 reports.

Its predecessor, Banxing-1, completed the same mission with the Shenzhou-7 spacecraft in 2008. While Banxing-1 is bigger, the new Banxing-2 microsatellite has a higher capacity.

 

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

From about Oct. 31 through Nov. 16, Tiangong-2 will be visible after sunset in the evening sky.
More often than not, Tiangong-2 should shine with a brightness of about magnitude +2, making it easily visible with the naked eye. Magnitude 2 is as bright as Polaris, the North Star.


To find out the best time to view Tiangong-2 from your hometown, visit one of these two websites:

http://spaceweather.com/flybys/

http://www.n2yo.com/?s

 

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

Two Chinese astronauts closed out a month in space Friday with a parachute-assisted landing in northern China’s remote Inner Mongolia territory, a day after the crew departed the Tiangong 2 space lab to begin the trip home.

The two-man team finished their experiments this week, a slate of tests and investigations aimed at a range of scientific and engineering disciplines, and cleaned up the Tiangong 2 module before closing hatches leading to their Shenzhou 11 space capsule, the ship they flew into space Oct. 16 atop a Long March 2F rocket.

Shenzhou 11 detached from the Tiangong 2 space lab at 0441 GMT Thursday (11:41 p.m. EST Wednesday), then headed for landing in Inner Mongolia’s Siziwang Banner region.

The capsule was spotted on the ground at 0607 GMT (1:07 a.m. EST; 2:07 p.m. Beijing time) Friday, according to China’s state-run Xinhua news agency.

“Shenzhou 11 has landed successfully, and the two astronauts are all in good shape, and I would like to declare the mission of Tiangong 2 and Shenzhou 11 has achieved a complete success,” said General Zhang Youxia, chief commander of China’s human spaceflight program.

The Shenzhou 11 landing capsule is seen separating from the spacecraft’s propulsion module in this on-board camera view. Credit: CCTV


http://spaceflightnow.com/2016/11/18/shenzhou-11-landing/