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Shenzhou-9 returns to Earth


Waspie_Dwarf

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China's Shenzhou-9 spacecraft returns to Earth

A Chinese space capsule carrying three crew members has returned to Earth following a 13-day mission.

Images of the capsule landing in Inner Mongolia at 10:05 local time (02:05 GMT) were shown live on television.

The astronauts, including China's first woman in space, carried out a successful manual docking with the Tiangong-1 laboratory module.

The mission is a key step towards China's goal of building a space station by 2020.

Premier Wen Jiabao hailed the mission as a "complete success".

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Looks like they will be a bit more successful than the Russians.

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Looks like they will be a bit more successful than the Russians.

In what way? The Russian's have an enormously successfulanned spaceflight programme. So successful in fact that the Chinese bought Russian technology to incorporate into their programme. The Shenzhou itself is heavily based on the Russian Soyuz.

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In what way? The Russian's have an enormously successfulanned spaceflight programme. So successful in fact that the Chinese bought Russian technology to incorporate into their programme. The Shenzhou itself is heavily based on the Russian Soyuz.

Hi Waspie,

Just a reference to recent mishaps the Russians have had. I can't remember of the top of my head but didn't they have a rocket crash recently, a satellite crash down out of orbit, a cargo docking issue and aren't they having funding issues too?

Granted if we look at the history of the exploration of space the Russians have had lots of success and a I think they are currently still sending cosmonauts / astronauts back and forth to the International Space Station. But right now (in my maybe less educated view) I would rather be on a Chinese space flight rather than a Russian one (whether the design is Russian or Inuit ).

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Junior Chubb,

For someone making the claim that the Chinese manned space programme is safer than the Russians you seem to be a little vague in your reasoning. Your post seems to be almost totally a fact free zone.

But right now (in my maybe less educated view) I would rather be on a Chinese space flight rather than a Russian one (whether the design is Russian or Inuit ).

I doubt that you will find anyone that actually knows anything about these two programmes that would agree with you.

Rather than the vague guess work you are basing your conclusions on shall we inject some reality and fact?

Your statement about funding problems would be true if you were writing this before 2005. The Russian economy has grown strongly as a result of gas and oil since then and Roscosmos no longer has the financial problems it did 7 or 8 years ago. Roscosmos has a far larger budget than the China National Space Agency.

You seem to be extremely vague about the "crash" but I'm assuming you mean the launch failure of Progress M-12M on 24th August 2011. This launch failure caught the attention of the media because it resulted in the loss of a supply vehicle to the ISS and used a similar launch vehicle to the manned Soyuz spacecraft.

Let's put that loss into perspective shall we? The ISS is the 4th space station serviced by these vehicles. They entered service in 1978 and have supplied Salyut 6, Salyut 7 and Mir before the ISS. There have been more than 135 flights of this vehicle and M-12M was the only failure. That makes it more reliable than the shuttle.

Now the Soyuz, a vehicle which you wouldn't fly on, which is rather odd as it is such a good vehicle that the Chinese have based their Shenzhou on it. Soyuz had a poor start, with two fatal accidents in its first 4 years. Soyuz 1 suffered a parachute failure in 1967 and Soyuz 11 lost pressure during re-entry. The crew were not wearing pressure suits and suffocated. Soyuz has not had a fatal accident since. That is 41 years without the loss of a cosmonaut, which is remarkable.

However the Soyuz has had 2 mishaps since 1971. In 1975 during the launch of Soyuz 18-1 the 3rd stage failed to separate fully from the 2nd. The automatic abort system was triggered, the Soyuz capsule was separated from launch vehicle and the crew survived, shaken but safe.

In 1983 Soyuz T10-1 caught fire on the pad. Once again the abort system was triggered. The launch escape tower fired and pulled the capsule and crew away from the rocket, which exploded. The crew were unhurt. In the 29 years since there have been no Soyuz failures.

In all there have been 113 manned Soyuz flights.

China has just 4 manned flights under its belt. It is still a new, largely untried system, compared to the tried, tested and for nearly 3 decades safe Soyuz system.

One final thing, if you really think the Chinese are safer than the Russian's then there is a village near their launch site that would disagree with you. During a commercial Long March launch in 1996 the launch vehicle failed and crashed into the village. The official death toll was 6 villagers but some estimates claim it was more than 100. Having civilians living that close to a launch site would be unthinkable in the West and in Russia.

Anyone that would currently chose a Chinese manned launch over a Russian would, in my opinion, either have to be ignorant of the facts I have just presented or be crazy. In years to come the Shenzhou/Long March combination may prove to be safe, but it is far too early to know that yet.

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Waspie,

That's a lot of facts and figures (thanks for taking the time to post the information), looks like my view was less educated.

That's why my original post was a one line reference, maybe I should stick to lurking in the 'Space Exploration and Spaceflight' section. ;)

A couple of things though...

Your post seems to be almost totally a fact free zone

That's a bit harsh, there have been a couple of recent crashes in the Russian Space Program. I know I don't have to list them as you are aware of them, but its just to help clear the vagueness in my post.

"rocket crash recently" - A Russian Soyuz rocket crashed on Aug 24 2011

"a satellite crash(ed) down out of orbit" - Phobus Grunt got stuck in orbit and became a 'satellite' before crashing ;) (2011)

Two more facts from my post...

"Russians have had lots of success"

"currently still sending cosmonauts / astronauts back and forth to the International Space Station"

The "cargo docking issue" is hopefully covered by "I can't remember of the top of my head". The cargo issue is a memory issue, it was from the cargo lost on the Aug 24 2011 crash. Definitely a fallacy that one.

Your statement about funding problems

That statement was a question. Your right about the recent increase, in 2011 funding was triple that of 2007.

Now the Soyuz, a vehicle which you wouldn't fly on

Not wouldn't, just 'rather than' (nice to speculate on something that's not going to happen though).

Not quite the disaster scene I painted it out to be, the Russians do have good record especially with the Soyuz. But recent events still do not fill me with confidence. Looks like its going to be tougher decision than I originally thought if they get in touch.

In years to come the Shenzhou/Long March combination may prove to be safe, but it is far too early to know that yet.

Thanks again for taking the time to paint a bigger picture, I'm going to stick along the lines of my original post (even though 'ignorance is bliss' and I maybe a little crazy) but just revise it slightly...

Looks like they might be a bit more successful than the Russians in the future.

Edited by Junior Chubb
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