On June 17 at 01:22 UTC, a Chinese Long March 2F launched the Shenzhou 12 spacecraft from pad 91 at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. Onboard was the first crew for China’s new space station, Nie Haisheng, Liu Boming, and Tang Hongbo. Nie is making his third spaceflight and is the oldest Chinese person to go into space at 56; Liu is making his second spaceflight, and Tang only his first. After a brief seven-hour trip to the space station, Shenzhou 12 docked with the Tianhe core module at 08:00 UTC. The three astronauts will spend three months in space performing experiments, spacewalks, and station maintenance. This was the first Chinese crewed launch in five years.

The Long March 2F has an unusual staging sequence compared to the rockets we typically cover here on the show. The first stage only burns for twenty seconds longer than the boosters, meaning they separate at almost the same time, while on the second stage, the main engine cuts off prior to spacecraft separation. The four vernier engines carry the rocket the rest of the way to orbit, allowing for fine control of the orbit the spacecraft is inserted into, which is particularly necessary for short rendezvous launches.

The reason for this unusual staging sequence is that the first stage, boosters, and second stage all use the same high thrust YF-20B engine. The main engine needs to cut off early or the crew would be subjected to unnecessarily high G forces.

If you think that the Shenzhou spacecraft looks like a near copy of the Russian Soyuz, you’re right. The Shenzhou and Soyuz share the same three-module layout with orbital, descent, and service modules. The Chinese and Russians collaborated a lot in the early- to mid-1990s, and this collaboration included the transfer of equipment, documentation, and training relating to the Soyuz spacecraft as well as other space systems,

One major difference between the two spacecraft is the docking port. The Soyuz uses the same version it has used since the 1960s. The Shenzhou, on the other hand, uses a port derived from the Autonomous Peripheral Attachment System, also known as APAS-95. APAS-95 was itself slightly modified from the port developed for the Soviet Buran space shuttle orbiter.

The Shenzhou orbital module also had solar panels and was capable of functioning independently in orbit on Shenzhou 1 through 7, running experiments on the front of the module after the descent module returned to Earth. Starting with Shenzhou 8, this capability was removed to make room for the docking port. Another minor difference is that Shenzhou has four orbital maneuvering engines instead of the single orbital maneuvering engine on Soyuz.

Shenzhou 12 is the third of eleven planned missions that will take place over the next two years to complete the Chinese space station. Two additional station modules based on the previous Chinese space station are planned to be added, and there will be further crew and cargo flights. 

More Information

CASC press release (Chinese)

Jiuquan SLS (Astronautix)

Shenzhou (Astronautix)

Chinese Bought Russian Technology to Aid Space Program (Space.com)

Launch video