SPACE CHRONICLE A BRITISH INTERPLANETARY SOCIETY PUBLICATION Vol. 72 No.2 2019 OPERATIONS WITH CHINA’S TIANGONG-2 Changing shift on the ISS CHINA’S PATHFINDER ASTRONAUTS SOVIET METEOR SATELLITES ISBN 978-0-9567382-2-6 APRIL 20191 Submitting papers to From the editor SPACE CHRONICLE FOR THIS SECOND 2019 SUPPLEMENTARY ISSUE of Space Chronicle the four papers once again alternate between Chinese and Russian topics. Three Space Chronicle welcomes the submission papers are from presentations originally given at different Sino-Russian Technical for publication of technical articles of general Forums, while the fourth updates research conducted by its author 15 years ago, interest, historical contributions and reviews highlighting the requirement for on-going research even after publication or in space science and technology, astronautics presentation of the original material. and related fields. In the first paper Phil Clark reviews the demise of Tiangong-1, China’s first space GUIDELINES FOR AUTHORS laboratory, before giving a detailed account of operations with Tiangong-2 which saw the inauguration of the unmanned cargo freighter Tianzhou and the CZ-7 ■ As concise as the content allows – launch vehicle. Tiangong-2 is believed to be the final step prior to assembling the typically 5,000 to 6,000 words. Shorter larger Tiangong modular space station and the much-anticipated launch of the papers will also be considered. Longer first element of that complex, known as Tianhe 1. papers will only be considered in exceptional circumstances and, at the In the second paper Bart Hendrickx returns to the Soviet era, updating his 2004 discretion of the Editor, may be split into research into the creation of the weather satellite programme known as Meteor. parts. Due to more prestigious projects taking precedence, more practical applications ■ Source references should be inserted in tended to proceed at a slower pace than their counterparts in the United States. the text in square brackets [X] and then Bart presents a fascinating insight into the early years of this largely overlooked listed at the end of the paper. programme during 1960s and 1970s and briefly reviews the more advanced types of weather satellites that replaced Meteor. ■ Illustration references should be cited in numerical order in the text as ‘Fig.X’; those The third paper is from Bert Vis, who expands on his earlier paper on the selection not cited in the text risk omission. of China’s astronauts that appeared in the last Chronicle supplement. In this issue ■ Captions must be labelled with their Fig. Bert recounts a chance meeting over 20 years ago at the Gagarin Cosmonaut number and should be as short as possible. Training near Moscow between British space enthusiast Neil Da Costa and two ■ Illustrations should be: Chinese astronauts who were undergoing basic Russian cosmonaut training. Having only recently selected its first group of space trainees, China sent the two – colour or mono, but should be as close pathfinders to Russia on a fast-tracked programme. The objective was to gather to print resolution (300 dpi) as possible. hands-on experience on how to prepare crews for spaceflight and to adapt the – poor-quality illustrations may lessons learned for the Shenzhou programme. 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SPACE CHRONICLE A BRITISH INTERPLANETARY SOCIETY PUBLICATION Vol. 72 No.2 2019 Contents 37 OPERATIONS WITH TIANGONG-2 Phillip S. Clark 56 SOVIET WEATHER WATCH The Early Years of the Meteor Programme Bart Hendrickx 62 CHINA’S PATHFINDER ASTRONAUTS Bert Vis 66 CHANGING SHIFT ON THE ISS David J. Shayler OUR MISSION STATEMENT The British Interplanetary Society promotes the exploration and use of space for the benefit of humanity, connecting people to create, educate and inspire, and advance knowledge in all aspects of astronautics. 37 Contributors Phillip S. Clark presented a paper at the very first Technical Forum in 1980 and traditionally has delivered the final presentation at most of the subsequently meetings. Since 1969 Phil has focused on Soviet/ Russian and Chinese spaceflight, and has been a space consultant for many years. The author of the popular 1988 book The Soviet Manned Space Programme he has regularly published papers in JBIS and SpaceFlight. Bart Hendrickx is a long-time observer of the Soviet/Russian space programme and has regularly written on the programme’s history for British Interplanetary Society publications during the last twenty years. He is also co-author, with Bert Vis, of the book Energiya-Buran: The Soviet Space Shuttle, published by Springer/Praxis in 2007. Since the beginning of 2015, he has acted as Executive Secretary of the Belgian branch of the Society. Bert Vis lives in The Hague, Netherlands, where he works for the local fire service. His interest in spaceflight history started with the launch of Apollo-7 in 1968 and he has followed the manned spaceflight efforts ever since. Concentrating on the Soviet/Russian and Chinese manned space programs in the past two decades, he has co-authored five books on spaceflight history and written dozens of articles for magazines such as Spaceflight and Space Chronicle.. Guest editor David Shayler attended his first forum in 1983, has presented regularly since then, and from 2012 became Coordinator and Co-Chair of the event. He created Astro Info Service in 1982 to focus his research and writing and was elected to the BIS Council in 2013. David is the author of more than 26 titles on human spaceflight, including cooperative works on the Vostok era and Soyuz with the late Rex Hall, and the Cosmonaut Training Center with Rex and Bert Vis. He is currently working on an update to his Soyuz book and a history of Russian space stations planned for 2021 – the 50th anniversary of Salyut. (www.astroinfoservice.co.uk) 38 Space Chronicle, Vol. 72, pp.39-55, 2019 OPERATIONS WITH TIANGONG 2 PHILLIP S CLARK The flight of China’sTiangong 2 space laboratory cleared the way for the country to begin operations with the Tiangong Complex, the country’s first true space station. This paper pro- vides an orbital analysis of the Tiangong 2 mission and the two associated flights, the piloted Shenzhou 11 and the unmanned cargo freighter Tianzhou 1. The paper also reviews the orbital decay of Tiangong 1 and the maiden launch of the CZ-7 launch vehicle which is used for the launch of Tianzhou freighters.