Shenzhou Program - History

History

China's first efforts at human spaceflight started in 1968 with a projected launch date of 1973. Although China did launch an unmanned satellite in 1970 and has maintained an active unmanned program since, the manned spaceflight program was cancelled due to lack of funds and political interest.

The current Chinese human spaceflight program was authorized on 1 April 1992 as Project 921-1, with work beginning on 1 January 1993. The initial plan has three phases:

• Phase 1 would involve launch of two unmanned versions of the manned spacecraft, followed by the first Chinese manned spaceflight, by 2002.
• Phase 2 would run through 2007, and involve a series of flights to prove the technology, conduct rendezvous and docking operations in orbit, and operate an eight-ton spacelab using the basic spacecraft technology.
• Phase 3 would involve orbiting of a 20-ton space station in the 2010–2015 period, with crews being shuttled to it using the eight-ton manned spacecraft.

In 1994, Russia sold some of its advanced aviation and space technology to the Chinese government. In 1995 a deal was signed between the two countries for the transfer of Russian Soyuz spacecraft technology to China. Included in the agreement was training, provision of Soyuz capsules, life support systems, docking systems, and space suits. In 1996 two Chinese astronauts, Wu Jie and Li Qinglong, began training at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Russia. After training, these men returned to China and proceeded to train other Chinese astronauts at sites near Beijing and Jiuquan. The hardware and information sold by the Russians led to modifications of the original Phase One spacecraft, eventually called Shenzhou, which loosely translated means “divine vessel.” New launch facilities were built at the Jiuquan launch site in Inner Mongolia, and in the spring of 1998 a mock-up of the Long March 2F launch vehicle with Shenzhou spacecraft was rolled out for integration and facility tests.

The chief designers include Qi Faren and Wang Yongzhi. The first unmanned flight of the spacecraft was launched on 19 November 1999 after which Project 921-1 was renamed Shenzhou, a name reportedly chosen by Jiang Zemin. A series of three additional unmanned flights ensued. The Shenzhou reentry capsules used to date are 13 percent larger than Soyuz reentry capsules, and it is expected that later craft will be designed to carry a crew of four instead of Soyuz's three, although physical limitations on Astronaut size, as experienced with earlier incarnations of Soyuz, will likely apply.

The fifth launch, Shenzhou 5, was the first to carry a human (Yáng Lìwěi) and occurred at 9:00 CST (UTC +8) on 15 October 2003.

Like similar space programs in other nations, Shenzhou has raised some questions about whether China should spend money on launching people into space, arguing that these resources would be better directed elsewhere. Indeed, two earlier human spaceflight programs, one in the mid-1970s and the other in the 1980s were cancelled because of expense. In response, a number of justifications have been offered in the Chinese media. One is that the long term destiny of humanity lies in the exploration of space, and that China should not be left behind. Another is that such a program will catalyze the development of science and technology in China. Finally, it has been argued that the prestige resulting from this capability will increase China's stature in the world, in a similar manner to the 2008 Olympics.

On 17 October 2005, following the success of Shenzhou 6, Chinese media officially stated that the cost of this flight was around $110 million USD, and the gross cost of Project 921/1 in the past 11 years was $2.3 billion USD. These values are lower than the cost of similar space programs in other nations.

The Chinese media has heavily promoted the experiments undertaken by Shenzhou, particularly exposing seeds, including some from Taiwan, to zero gravity and radiation. Most scientists, however, discount the usefulness of this type of experiment – instead relying upon crop modification at the genetic level for future productivity benefits.

The experience during the 1960s of both the United States with the Manned Orbiting Laboratory and the Soviet Union with the Almaz space station suggests that the military usefulness of human spaceflight is quite limited and that practically all military uses of space are much more effectively performed by unmanned satellites. Thus while the Shenzhou orbital module could be used for military reconnaissance there appears to be no military reason for incorporating such as system in a manned mission, as China could use purely unmanned satellites for these purposes. Yet, the nature of space exploration, with different nations trying successively to achieve the same goals (e.g., the original U.S. – Soviet "space race", current efforts to duplicate GPS and GLONASS with Galileo), implies that China may well be walking down this route as others have before them.