Officials with the China Manned Spaceflight Program announces today (Oct. 11) that the launch of Shenzhou-6 (SZ-6, Shenzhou means "Divine Vessel" or "Magic Vessel") would take place between a 4-day period from tomorrow (Oct. 12) to Saturday (Oct. 15), reports Xinhua News Agency.

Chinese media widely reports a launch time of 9:30 a.m. Beijing Time (0130 UTC) on Wednesday. However, the French news agency AFP cited a liftoff time half an hour earlier. Today a report in Wen Wei Po, a pro-Beijing newspaper here, supports the 9 a.m. launch time.

Then a report in yesterday's (Oct. 10) Changsha Evening News quoted an official with the General Armament Department of the People's Liberation Army (PLA), a person whom the newspaper only identified as Mr. She, as saying that the launch could take place any time between 6 and 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday.

Two yuhangyuans ("astronauts") will ride on SZ-6 for a 119-hour mission. The spacecraft will go into an initial elliptical transfer orbit of 200 x 347 km with an inclination of 42.4 degrees. After an orbital maneuver, SZ-6 will settle into a circular orbit of 343 km high.

The Changzheng-2F launcher (CZ-2F, Changzheng means "Long March"), with the SZ-6 spacecraft secured inside the payload fairing at the top, rolled out of the huge Vertical Assembly and Testing Building (VATB) to the launch pad last Friday (Oct. 7).

The rollout began at 9 a.m. By 10:20 a.m. the mobile launch platform completed the transport of the launcher to the South Launch Pad 1.5 km away. The southern pad is primarily used for CZ-2F launch.

The launch processing team finished one final integrated testing of the entire CZ-2F stack at 1 p.m. on Sunday (Oct. 9). There was no report any significant issue and it appeared that fuelling of the launcher could proceed on Tuesday afternoon (Oct. 11).

IDENTITY OF MISSION CANDIDATES REVEALED
The six mission candidates flew in from Beijing on three separate military flights last Saturday. The flights landed at the Dingxin Airport, about 70 km from JSLC. The six yuhangyuans were then chauffeured to the launch center and entered quarantine at their exclusive residence there.

Wen Wei Po reported that Yang Liwei, China's first "space hero", met all six candidates shortly after their arrival. Yang, who is also living inside the yuhangyuan residence, arrived at JSLC with several leaders of the General Armament Department of PLA on Oct. 5.

The residence is strictly off limit to everyone except personnel with authorized permits, such as key mission personnel and medical team staff. There is a significant number of armed guards securing the compound.

Even for personnel who have the access permission, officials do not allow them to bring in any recording device for fear of disclosing the identity of the six yuhangyuans, which remains officially unknown at this time.

However, based on information from undisclosed sources, Lanzhou Morning Post published the names of the three pairs of candidates in a report yesterday (Oct. 10). The newspaper believes that the six candidates include Fei Junlong and Nie Haisheng, Liu Boming and Jing Haipeng, and Zhai Zhigang and Wu Jie.

Unconfirmed reports suggest that the Zhai-Wu combination might move up to become the first backup crew.

Lanzhou Morning Post also wrote that the Fei-Nie combination remained the leading candidate to pilot the mission. According to the newspaper, and also a report in Wen Wei Po here on the same day, the performance of Fei has been outstanding and could possibly be designated as the "Mission Commander". This would make his partner Nie as the "Mission Operator".

Wen Wei Po explains that the Commander, who would seat on the right side (starboard) in the capsule, would control the spacecraft using the hand controller and a list of operation procedures.

Today Wen Wei Po reports that Fei Junlong, Liu Boming, and Zhai Zhigang are the respective leaders of their own team. This suggests that whichever team travels on SZ-6, the team leader would be the Mission Commander.

Among the rest of the candidates, Zhai Zhigang was one of the three yuhangyuans in the final round of competition for the single seat on SZ-5 two years ago. Wu Jie was one of the two yuhangyuans who went to Star City in Moscow in Nov. 1996 to receive a year of training as an instructor.

All six candidates would undergo one final full-dressed rehearsal with spacecraft ingress and emergency bailout at the launch pad before the launch.

Wuhan Evening Post reported on Sunday that senior officials at JSLC would meet and cast their votes to decide the final crew today (Oct.

11) . The decision will be based on the psychology, physiology, and long term performance of each yuhangyuan as well as opinion from specialists at the Aerospace Medical Engineering Research Institute in Beijing. The final decision would come at T minus 5 hours before launch -- in the early morning hours on Wednesday.

LIVE BROADCAST OF LAUNCH
Many journalists had hoped to receive media badges to enter the core of JSLC to cover the launch. But officials limited access to the launch center to mostly media persons from China Central TV (CCTV), China National Radio, China Radio International, Xinhua News Agency, People's Daily and a small number of journalists from other media outlets. For the other more than 200 journalists, they could only "cover" the mission from the city of Jiuquan several hundred kilometers away in Gansu Province.

Those journalists who did not get into JSLC might have to watch the launch on CCTV or listen to the coverage on China National Radio. CCTV will offer extensive coverage of the mission, with live broadcast including the launch beginning at about 1 hour before liftoff. Yang Liwei will appear on CCTV to provide expert commentary during the coverage of the launch.

The core 8-km radius of JSLC has been sealed off except to mission personnel when martial law entered into effect as of yesterday (Oct.

10) . Wireless communications was no longer possible at the launch center. On launch day communications with the outside world will be basically cut off for security reasons.

Interestingly reports in Chinese media mentioned that even family members of the six yuhangyuan candidates would not witness the blastoff from a safe distance at the launch pad area. They would join other invited guests to see the live broadcast of the launch at the reception hall in the main building at Dongfeng Aerospace City. It appears that only the most senior mission personnel and key political figures would get a direct view the launch from a viewing area near the launch pad.

CONCERN WITH WEATHER CONDITIONS
Space officials remain concern with the forecast weather conditions on Wednesday. The 3-day weather forecast that China Meteorological Administration (CMA) issued at 10 a.m. Beijing Time (0200 UTC) on Monday (Oct. 10) called for cold air to descend from west to east across the northwestern section of the country, including Inner Mongolia, as of today.

The present temperature before the arrival of the cold air at JSLC is about 5 degrees Celsius for the overnight low and a high temperature of near 20 C. But the blast of cold air would drop the temperature by about 10-12 C, with some areas in Inner Mongolia seeing an even larger decrease in temperature. Wind would become blustery from the north at 20-50 km/h, with gusts up to 60 km/h.

The weather bulletin also forecast at the launch site a cloudy sky that would turn into rain mixing with snow as well as warning about the possibility of localized sandstorm as a result of the strong wind, which would last at least until the end of the 3-day forecast period at 8 a.m. Beijing Time (0000 UTC) on Thursday (Oct. 13).

In addition to the strong surface wind, it is likely that high altitude wind may be unacceptable that could force a postponement of the launch until weather conditions turn more favourable in a few days.

Related Links
SpaceDaily
Search SpaceDaily
Subscribe To SpaceDaily Express

Thanks for being here; We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain. With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords. Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year. If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceDaily Contributor $5 Billed Once credit card or paypal		SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter $5 Billed Monthly paypal only