Launch News Shenzhou 9, Long March 2F, June 16, 2012 (mission updates)

[Notebook]

No probes, you have to eat! Noy that my last boss thought that way...

N.

 

[orb]

NASASpaceflight: Shenzhou-9 successfully conducts manual docking test with Tiangong-1

collectSPACE: China achieves first manual space docking

SPACE.com: Chinese Astronauts Manually Dock Spacecraft at Orbiting Module in National First

 

[orb]

SPACE.com: Chinese Spacecraft Spotted in Night Sky by Photographers

 

[orb]

SPACE.com: Chinese President Praises Astronauts in Special Space Call

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

Some updates:

1. The prime landing site on the grasslands near Mongolia is being prepped for the landing, now scheduled at around 02:00 UTC on Friday.
English news video

English news article

2. The undocking time is still not known with certainty, but the most probable time is at around 01:00 UTC tomorrow.

3. Apparently the crew did something never tried before in space: playing tai chi in space!

News video in Chinese

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

With astronaut Liu Wang at the controls, Shenzhou 9 has undocked from Tiangong 1 about an hour ago. Videos to follow later on...

:edit:

Hatch closure was at 22:37 UTC yesterday (Chinese news report), and undocking occurred at 01:22 UTC (Chinese news report).

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

For those who are not following, Shenzhou 9 is now coming back to Earth: the retrofire was completed about 20 minutes ago, and the orbital module have already separated.

Live broadcast here: http://english.cntv.cn

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

The spacecraft has passed the hottest past, and has made it out of the black-out zone.

And now the parachute is out!

 

[Codz]

Capsule touchdown!

 

[rodion_herrera]

That retro-blast right before touchdown seemed a little imbalanced--tipped the capsule over. I hope the crew is fine.

I also noticed that the helicopter cameraman panned away after the capsule rolled on the ground--I suspect that was per instruction or part-conditioning/training of operations video recording personnel to "not show" anything that might resemble a flop or failure.

-RODION

---------- Post added at 11:04 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:41 AM ----------

My bad--it landed on a slope, and thus the reason why it rolled/tipped over.

-RODION

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

For those who missed the landing....

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

And stunning landing photos:

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

 

[Donamy]

That landing looked like a car wreck.