Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Shenzhou-14 mission set for early June liftoff.
Credit: China Media Group(CMG)/China Central Television (CCTV)/China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC)/Inside Outer Space screengrab

Final preparations are underway for launching the Shenzhou-14 crewed spaceship from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China’s Gansu Province.

The three-member crew for the six-month in-orbit mission is to be unveiled on Saturday morning.

The Shenzhou-14 mission is expected to blastoff on Sunday, June 5, local time, then dock with China’s in-construction space station.

Critical sprint period

Meanwhile, launch crews are in a “critical sprint period,” according to China Central Television (CCTV).

A comprehensive rehearsal including pre-launch function checks and joint tests for the launch were conducted earlier Friday to ensure that facilities and equipment at the launch site are all in good condition, CCTV reports.

Apart from ignition and liftoff, the rehearsal covered all links of the launch mission.

Good status

Joint debugging and joint tests were carried out between the Beijing Aerospace Command and Control Center, other Telemetry, Tracking and Control stations and space-tracking ship, Yuanwang-3.

Credit: Chinese People’s Liberation Army

According to Qin Tong, a senior designer of the Long March-2F carrier rocket with the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT), the launching system of the Shenzhou-14 mission is in good status for takeoff.

“The results of launch rehearsals and tests on the entire system show that the Long March-2F carrier rocket is fully up to the standard. And all functional indicators can meet the requirements for the launch mission,” Qin told CCTV.

Workflow

“The rehearsals helped us test matching of the interfaces of all systems and correctness of the workflow, as well as completeness of the security work. Now the performance of the spacecraft and the rocket is good, and the work for the astronauts is going on well, which means that conditions allow the rocket to be filled with propellant, a critical step for the launch,” Deng Xiaojun, code-zero commander told CCTV. He is tasked with the countdown to ignition for the launch of the Shenzhou-14 crewed mission.

The combination of the Shenzhou-14 crewed spaceship and a Long March-2F carrier rocket was transferred to the launching area on May 29.