China sets date for first Manned Space launch

BEIJING, Oct. 10 — The Chinese government confirmed Friday that it would attempt its first manned space launch next week, saying the mission would begin between Wednesday and Friday “at a proper time.”

A SUCCESSFUL launch would make China the third country in the world to put a human being into space. The former Soviet Union put Yuri Gagarin into space in 1961; the United States sent Alan Shepard up less than a month later. “Now all preparatory work for the launch is progressing smoothly,” Xinhua quoted an unnamed space-program official as saying. The government has not announced the identity of the space traveler, and the Xinhua dispatches did not specify how many astronauts, or “taikonauts,” the craft would contain. The government said the Shenzhou 5 would fly on an elliptical orbit with the orbital inclination angle of 42.4 degrees. It will then shift to a circular orbit at an altitude of 213 miles. All would-be taikonauts — an English nickname based on the Chinese word for “space” — have passed “a comprehensive drill,” Xinhua said. The launch is scheduled to take place shortly after a major Communist Party meeting, suggesting an attempt to link the party’s leadership with one of the most patriotism-drenched events in recent Chinese history.

FROM 14 DOWN TO THREE The first Chinese in orbit is certain to become a hero at home; China’s space program has long been a closely guarded secret but also a vehicle for patriotism.

The English-language China Daily newspaper said a field of 14 trainees has been narrowed. While the three candidates have been ranked in order of preference, outside factors could still affect the final choice.

On Friday, the popular Sina.com Web site reported that handguns, knives and other “defensive weapons” will be stored aboard the capsule as a precaution against landing in hostile environs. Astronauts “will be able to deal with wild beasts, sharks and other dangerous animals or enemies,” it reported. State media have reported the Shenzhou 5 capsule will blast into space aboard a Long March CZ-2 rocket from the Gobi Desert launch base at Jiuquan in western China. Media have heaped praise on the expected event as a sign of China’s growing strength and modernity and while public interest is difficult to gauge, it seems that interest is growing. Sina.com said the craft would blast off during daylight and would return to earth by 6 p.m. Thursday, using its enormous parachutes to set down on the plains of Inner Mongolia. In recent years, China has launched four unmanned missions as preparation for taking a human aboard the Shenzhou 5, whose name means “Divine Vessel.” With space fever rising, one newspaper in southwestern China is asking readers for suggestions on what the first Chinese astronaut in space should say. The Chengdu Business News said it would pick the 10 best entries and send the contestants to the Jiuquan Launch Center in the northwestern province of Gansu to witness the launch.

It was impossible to verify the promised prize. However, the notion of 10 random people sent by a provincial newspaper being permitted to attend the launch of a military-linked space capsule in person seems unlikely. Emphasizing the space program’s strong ties to the military, army music and dance teams are producing a music video entitled “Soaring” to commemorate Shenzhou’s launch, the Communist Party’s official People’s Daily reported. “’Soaring’ will act out the romantic feelings and pioneering spirit of the 1,000-year quest of the sons and daughters of China,” said a brief article beside a picture of an actress in a shiny, form-fitting body suit with the Chinese flag emblazoned on her chest.

Heres more precise info on the orbital elements.

We need to work the payload numbers to estimate throw capability for warheads.

article follows from http://www.spacedaily.com/news/china-03zh.html

Shenzhou-5 To Launch Oct. 15 For 21 Hour Mission

file photo of the rollout of Shenzhou 3.
by Hou Yi
Hong Kong - Oct 09, 2003
The Hong Kong-based Wen Wei Po reports today (Oct. 9) that if all goes well, the first Chinese manned space mission will blast off on Oct. 15 at about 9 a.m. Beijing Time (0100 UTC).
Unidentified sources confirmed with the newspaper that barring from technical issues and inclement weather, the historic Shenzhou-5 (SZ-5) mission would be launched at this hour. These sources also confirmed that China Central TV (CCTV) were asked to preempt its programming "for more than tens of hours" to bring the live coverage to the nation.

In setting the liftoff time, space officials have taken into account of the spacecraft operational attitude and the amount of solar illumination available to the solar arrays on SZ-5.

The single-person mission will last about 21 hours according to the sources. This is essentially the same as the mission duration of the Shenzhou inaugural flight SZ-1.

In the past day Chinese media reported that SZ-5 might only travel in space for one orbit of 90 minutes. Sources flatly denied this to Wen Wei Po. "This is entirely a fabrication out of the media," said an unnamed official.

The official said that the nominal end of mission would happen before 6pm Beijing Time on Oct. 16 (1000 UTC).

Liberation Daily in Shanghai writes today that the Changzheng-2F (CZ-2F or Long March-2F) launcher will deliver SZ-5 into an initial elliptical orbit of approximately 200 km x 350 km. After the first few orbits, SZ-5 would raise its altitude to a circular orbit of about 350 km. SZ-5 will circle the Earth for 14 orbits before making the reentry.

The orbital profile would be basically the same as that of SZ-4, which had an operational circular orbit of 340 km.

SZ-5 would aim to land at its primary site in the county of Siziwang Qi in central Inner Mongolia. The county, primarily an area of livestock farming, is approximately 100 km north of Hohhot, the capital of Nei Mongol (Inner Mongolia) Autonomous Region.

The previous widely reported landing site near Bawang Qi is incorrect. Ta Kung Pao, another pro-Beijing newspaper here, reported on Monday (Oct. 6) that "Bawang Qi" did not exist in the latest map of China or Inner Mongolia, or in the telephone and postal directories.

The backup landing site is east of the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre (JSLC), which has also been mistakenly considered to be in Gansu Province. Wen Wei Po revealed yesterday (Oct. 8) that the launch site is located south of the county Ejin Qi, which is in the far western part of Inner Mongolia and is about 300 km northeast of Jiuquan.

Hey, here's more info... this thing is carrying mil int hardware????

http://www.astronautix.com/articles/sheessel.htm

Here's more info from Mark Wade's site:

The forward, orbital module of the Shenzhou manned spacecraft was designed to accommodate a variety of mission equipment. The orbital module remains in orbit after the service module and re-entry capsule have returned to earth. This means the mission equipment installed correspond in capability to a large unmanned satellite. Shenzhou's two different primary payloads, both of them military, were not discussed by Chinese authorities until early 2003.

Shenzhou 1 and 2 flew with dummy or partial electronic intelligence packages. On those flights three extendible booms were part of an experimental magnetic attitude sensing and control system. Shenzhou 3 and 4 flew with the complete electronic intelligence payload mounted on the nose. As analysed by veteran space-radio expert Sven Grahn, this consisted of two major components. UHF emission direction-finding was accomplished by three earth-pointing television-aerial type antennae deployed on long telescoping booms. These would function in the UHF band between 300 and 1,000 MHz, covering a variety of civilian and military emission sources. They were supplemented by seven horn antennae arranged in an arc. These would detect and localise radar transmissions. This combination would allow coverage of the entire earth below as the orbital module passed over the earth's surface.

Given that China had not previously flown a major ELINT satellite, this was an enormous leap in Chinese military surveillance from space. Each orbital module remains in space as long as eight months after the other modules return to earth. That means the orbital modules of the Shenzhou spacecraft have been scanning the earth 90% of the time, day in and day out, since Shenzhou 3 was launched in March 2002. Data is dumped in ten-minute bursts when the spacecraft pass over Miyun, near Beijing. These missions would have given China's equivalent to the American National Security Agency an excellent introduction into capabilities and problems in flying an operational ELINT satellite over a variety of targets and seasons of the year. The main objective, as was the case for low-altitude Soviet systems, would be to keep track of the US Navy, particularly carrier groups. Observations by Shenzhou 4 during the Iraq War would have been an intelligence windfall for the Chinese.

The second military payload flown aboard Shenzhou is an imaging reconnaissance package. This consisted of two cameras with an aperture of 500 - 600 mm. One is mounted in the equipment package at the nose of the spacecraft, the other below it at what had been earlier thought to be the porthole above the orbital module's main hatch. The use of two differing cameras indicates a hyper-spectral, multi-resolution, combination mapping/close-look system. As reported in Space Daily last March, Zhang Houying of the Chinese Academy of Sciences gave the ground resolution of the close-look CCD camera as 1.6 m.

According to Zhang, the high-resolution imaging payload would first fly on Shenzhou 5. He also reported that Shenzhou 5 would carry a docking system in addition to the camera system. This would seem to be contradictory, since the top camera would have to be mounted over the docking collar.

In any case it may be inferred that the main mission of China's first manned spaceflight will be military imaging reconnaissance. If the pattern of the Shenzhou 3 and 4 flights is followed, the crew will be tasked to identify targets of interest and will fly in a controlled 331 x 337 km orbit for 107 revolutions, or 6.77 days. The orbital module would remain in orbit for up to eight months after the crew returns to earth. Other sources indicate that the manned portion of the flight will be limited to only a single day to minimise risks, after which the orbital module will presumably continue in space on its surveillance mission.

"...looks like the Chinese program is using Russian derived hardware..."

You are almost correct. The Ruassians have been advising the Cheinese on various aspects of the spacecraft. Even though the Shenzhou vehicle looks like its cousin, the Soyuz, there are differences. First the orbital module, the part with what look like 2 cameras, is more cylindrical than the more sperical Soyuz o m. Also, it has a pair of solar panels attached, the Soyuz om doesn't. Second, the re-entry module is slightly larger than the Soyuz r m. Third, the service module is longer and slightly wider the the Soyuz s m. Overall, the Shenzhou is larger and heavier than the Soyuz. The Soyuz has been the workhorse for the Russians since 1967. With two fatal landings in roughly 120
flights, it's about as safe as the shuttle. China has used that knowledge and may have improved some of the systems. Time will tell for the Shenzhou. Perhaps with the help of x42, it'll be a safe spacecraft. The technology supplied by him has put the Chinese way ahead of the learning curve.

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