Shenzhou – China’s manned spacecraft

The Shenzhou spacecraft is China’s crewed access to space. It is China’s own spacecraft development but has very much similarities with Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft.

Facts

• Name: ShenZhou (神舟) is Chinese for Divine Ship
• Length: 9.25 m
• Diameter: max. 2.8 m (living compartment)
• Weight: 7.84 t (empty)
• Docking port: One
• Energy supply: Two 4-segment solar arrays (with a span of 17m)
• Expected life time: around one month (since Shenzhou 11)
• Launch vehicle: Long March 2F
• Max. Persons: 3
• Volume: 14.00 m³

Mission overview

Mission name	Launch	Landing	Duration	Crew	Mission description
Shenzhou 1	19th November 1999	20th November 1999	21 hours 11 minutes	No crew on board	The Shenzhou 1 was the first test flight of a Shenzhou spacecraft.
Shenzhou 2	9th January 2001	16th January 2001	7 days 10 hours 22 minutes	No crew on board	Shenzhou 2 carried multiple scientific payloads including monkey, dog, rabbit and other animals to space and save back to earth.
Shenzhou 3	25th March 2002	1st April 2002	6 days 18 hours 51 minutes	No crew on board	Onboard Shenzhou 3 a human-sized test dummy went to space and back to earth.
Shenzhou 4	29th December 2002	5th January 2003	6 days 18 hours 36 minutes	No crew on board	The last test flight before a manned spaceflight carried a test dummy and multiple science experiments.
Shenzhou 5	15th October 2003	15th October 2003	21 hours 23 minutes	– Yang Liwei	This was China’s first manned spaceflight and China became the third country that send a human into space by their own spacecraft and rocket.
Shenzhou 6	12th October 2005	16th October 2005	4 days 19 hours 33 minutes	– Fei Junlong – Nie Haisheng	Shenzhou 6 was China’s first two-person spaceflight and they stayed multiple days in space.
Shenzhou 7	25th September 2008	28th September 2008	2 days 20 hours 27 minutes	– Zhai Zhigang – Liu Boming – Jing Haipeng	On Shenzhou 7 China performed for the first time a three-person spaceflight and undertook the first spacewalk.
Shenzhou 8	31st October 2011	17th November 2011	16 days 13 hours 34 minutes	No crew on board	During Shenzhou 8 mission occurred the first autonomous docking of a Shenzhou spacecraft with Tiangong-1 space laboratory.
Shenzhou 9	16th June 2012	29th June 2012	12 days 15 hours 24 minutes	– Jing Haipeng – Liu Wang – Liu Yang	This Shenzhou mission performed the first manned visit of Tiangong-1 space laboratory and a first spaceflight of a Chinese woman.
Shenzhou 10	11th June 2013	26th June 2013	14 days 14 hours 29 minutes	– Nie Haisheng – Zhang Xiaoguang – Wang Yaping	The Shenzhou 10 flight was the second manned visit of Tiangong-1 space laboratory and the first Chinese two-week-stay in space.
Shenzhou 11	17th October 2016	18th November 2016	32 days 06 hours 29 minutes	– Jing Haipeng – Chen Dong	Shenzhou 11 marked China’s first long duration flight and only flight to Tiangong-2 space laboratory.
Shenzhou 12	17th June 2021	17th September 2021	92 days 04 hours 11 minutes	– Nie Haisheng – Liu Boming – Yang Hongbo	The Shenzhou 12 was the first manned flight to visit the core module TianHe of China’s space station.
Shenzhou 13	15th October 2021	16th April 2022	182 days, 9 hours 32 minutes	– Zhai Zhigang – Wang Yaping – Ye Guangfu	The Shenzhou 13 was the 2nd flight to the Chinese Space Station. The long-duration flight was another record for China as well for Wang Yaping. She is now Chinese with the longest stay in space with on overall of 197 days.
Shenzhou 14	5th June 2022	expected December 2022	around 6 months	– Cheng Dong – Liu Yang – Cai Xuzhe	The Shenzhou 14 is China’s 3rd flight to the Chinese Space Station Tiangong. The mission was mostly responsible to extend the space station with two new science modules Wentian and Mengtian.
Shenzhou 15	29th November	expected May/June 2023	around 6 months	– Fei Junlong – Deng Qingming – Zhang Lu	The Shenzhou 15 is China’s 4th flight to the Chinese Space Station Tiangong. It is the first time in Chinese Spaceflight that one crew is handing over the command of the station to the other at the space station.

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