China's Shenzhou spacecraft has undergone a leapfrog enhancement in its capabilities over the past two decades, from taking two days to dock with China's space station to completing the same task in just 3.5 hours.
The Shenzhou-21 manned spaceship, which was sent into space from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on Friday night, marked the country's first use of the 3.5-hour fast rendezvous and docking procedure.
He Yu, commander-in-chief of Shenzhou spacecraft, elaborated on the rapid progress.
"Firstly, the speed is faster. The earliest rendezvous and docking took two days, while in the Shenzhou-21 mission, it took 3.5 hours. The earliest return took about one day, while the Shenzhou-21 also has the capability to return after orbiting the Earth three times, which is about five hours, that is faster," said He.
Besides faster speed, He also noted that the spacecraft production has also accelerated, from taking one to two years to develop a single spaceship to achieving batch production capable of supporting two launches per year.
"Secondly, I think we now have greater capability. For example, our cargo transport capability has been significantly boosted – our capability to send cargo into space has increased by 20 percent, while the capability to download cargo has doubled the previous level. The cargo space is three times as much as before, which means that it can effectively support the return of large quantities of scientific experiment samples from the space station. It is also the only spaceship in our country capable of returning to Earth," said He.
"Moreover, our flight capability is stronger. The Shenzhou spaceship can now conduct rendezvous and docking with all docking ports of the space station. We also have the capability for ground emergency rescue standby. In addition, our components and parts are now much more independently controllable," he said.
Shenzhou spacecraft achieves leapfrog progress in 20 years: expert
