Shenzhou 7 mission thread

Belisarius

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Launch window starts 25 September (today) 21.07 Beijing time, 13.07 GMT, 15.07 Central European Time, 09.07 Eastern Time US
Launch window ends 1 hour 20 minutes later.

"All the systems of the Shenzhou-7manned space program are going well as the mission, including China's first space walk, has begun to count down for Thursday's blastoff, officials said Wednesday night.

Engineers started Wednesday afternoon to load fuel into the Long-March II-F carrier rocket which will lift the spaceship into orbit late on Thursday.

The launch has become irreversible after the loading, sources with the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest Gansu Province said."

http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90776/90881/6505718.html

Official China People's Daily webpage on the mission here

http://english.people.com.cn/90002/95532/index.html
 

Urwumpe

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Really? They didn't develop a launch scrub fuel dumping procedure?

They use toxic, hypergolic propellants, I would not be surprised if unloading fuel is considered too risky. The Russian Proton rocket solves this problem by having almost no person on the launch pad, during fuel loading/unloading, but I am sure, China has not yet developed such an automatisation.
 

Jarvitä

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They use toxic, hypergolic propellants, I would not be surprised if unloading fuel is considered too risky. The Russian Proton rocket solves this problem by having almost no person on the launch pad, during fuel loading/unloading, but I am sure, China has not yet developed such an automatisation.

So what happens in the event of a launch abort?
 

Belisarius

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The capsule will be ejected by means of escape tower and the LV will blow up, scattering toxins for many hundreds of kilometers. But it's China, who's going to notice the difference?

LATEST:

The Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center will hold a ceremony for the three taikonauts due to board the Shenzhou-7 spacecraft before the start of the mission.

The ceremony will commence at 5:30 p.m. in the taikonauts' apartment compound, called Wentiange, or "Ask-the-Sky Pavillion," at the launch center.

http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90776/90881/6506320.html

So it's happening about now. I wish I was a fly on the wall (who could understand Chinese)
 

cjp

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Does anybody know a live video stream of the launch? As far as I can see, NASA TV doesn't broadcast it. There seem to be western media present at the launch site (Reuters, AP, Fuji TV, ...)...
 

cjp

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Supposedly live video link available here (just come on):

http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90776/90881/6506329.html

But I can't get it to work

Looking at the HTML code, that page seems to link to this mms stream:

mms://live.cctv.com/cctv_live9

However, loading that directly in VLC player doesn't work.

On Wikipedia, I found another link to CCTV 9 (CCTV 9 is the English-language channel of the Chinese government):

http://www.cctv-9.com/2005/asx/live/live_300.asx

But again, it doesn't work.

Edit:
The main page http://www.cctv-9.com links to the URL http://www.cctv-9.com/2005/asx//_300.asx . Again, doesn't work.

Edit 2:
I managed to download the live_300.asx file, and it refers to the following mms stream:

mms://72.166.136.132/cctv9-300

I think the '300' is for 300kb/s

But again, doesn't work.
 

Belisarius

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What a cock-up. I hope they launch the rocket better than they launch their media coverage.

Fuji TV has nothing, NHK neither.

LATEST:

"Chinese President Hu Jintao had a brief meeting with taikonauts Zhai Zhigang, Liu Boming and Jing Haipeng, before their boarding of the country's third manned spacecraft Shenzhou-7, on Thursday and wished them success in the mission.

"During the mission, you will wear the homemade Feitian space suit for the first time and carry out China's first extravehicular activity, which is a great leap for China's space technology," Hu said at a see-off ceremony at the launch center."

http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90776/90881/6506338.html

Gee, I hope the suit really isn't homemade.
 

Artlav

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CCTV 9? Got that one on my satellite dish...
Right now they show some historical program about first satellite launches.

No idea where to get it online though.
 

Belisarius

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LATEST:

"All three Chinese taikonauts have entered the Shenzhou-7 spacecraft at 18:28 p.m. Thursday, about three hours ahead of its scheduled launch.

They then plugged their spacesuits to the re-entry module of the craft and checked the communication system with the ground control after reviewing the operation manual of the spaceship."

http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90776/90881/6506375.html
 

Woo482

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any video feeds ?
 

Artlav

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"...We are about an hour away from launch..."

Any place where a launch time is said?
 

Belisarius

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No, launch could be anytime between 1307 and 1427 GMT, starting an hour from now.
artlav: keep us posted, you're the only one who has anything like a live feed with your cool satellite dish selection.
 

Artlav

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CCTV 9:
A shot of the launch pad with bad-english reporter, saying that the launch will happen nearly in an hour from now.

The channel feels somewhat propagandistic - they shown taikonauts, who they called astronauts all the time, preparing and entering the vehicle, with many "OHO" shots and heroic music background.
 
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