ISS docking

ESA, China Discuss Shenzhou Docking At ISS
 
Amy Svitak - Aviation Week
 
European Space Agency Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain met with his Chinese counterpart March 22-23 to discuss future cooperation in manned spaceflight, including the potential for a Chinese Shenzhou spacecraft to dock with the International Space Station (ISS).
 
The two sides met at Dordain’s request on the sidelines of the European Space Agency’s third Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) launch to the ISS March 23 to further establish a dialogue and lay the groundwork for potential Sino-European cooperation in manned spaceflight.
 
“For the moment we cannot dock and rendezvous with the ISS, because our system is not the same as the Americans or the Russians,” said Wang Zhaoyao, the newly named director general of the China Manned Space Engineering Office (Cmseo), adding that experts from both agencies are expected to establish a working group that will meet in Paris next month to discuss Shenzhou’s compatibility with a planned ISS common docking mechanism. “We would like to have cooperation.”
 
The bilateral talks come just months ahead of China’s plan to perform its first manned space-docking operation with Shenzhou 9. Wang says a crew of three onboard the spacecraft are expected to board the Tiangong 1 pressurized “docking target” space module launched last September, following a combination of automated and manual rendezvous and docking procedures.
 
Dordain says the two sides are discussing a range of collaborative opportunities in the area of manned spaceflight, including astronaut training, life-support systems and utilization of each other’s space station facilities.
 
While no concrete proposals are on the table, Dordain says the ISS partners should be open to cooperation with other countries, including China, which he says is difficult to ignore.
 
“The partnership of the ISS is very, very important, and I don’t take any actions that would be to the detriment of that partnership, but it can be successful only if we are open to other cooperation or other partners,” he said. “Ignoring China and not raising the question of cooperation would be the worst option. For the time being, we are raising the question and discussing what we can do.”
 
Last fall, Beijing said its unmanned Shenzhou 8 spacecraft had executed an in-orbit rendezvous and docking with Tiangong 1 in preparation for the manned mission this summer.
 
“After many years of hard work, China’s manned space program has achieved some success,” Wang said, adding that Beijing expects to launch its own space station by the end of the decade. “After completing this year’s Shenzhou 9 mission, we will have a complete mastery of the docking and rendezvous technology.”
 
Wang, the former deputy director of Cmseo who took over earlier this year from the retiring Wang Wenbao, said China is not currently focused on developing hardware for manned missions to the Moon, although Beijing expects to send a robotic probe to land there in 2012 or 2013.
 
“It is China’s lunar exploration program for the moment,” Wang said.
 
In addition to the European Space Agency (ESA), he said China is discussing manned spaceflight cooperation with the French space agency CNES on technologies for measuring astronauts’ vital statistics, such as blood pressure.
 
Space activities “belong to everyone,” Wang said, adding that he hopes to carry out more cooperation with ESA and other European partners in the future. But whether a Chinese astronaut will travel to the ISS this decade remains to be seen.
 
“Personally I think the technology is not a problem, but whether we can get to the station will depend on the attitude of the United States,” Wang said, alluding to a U.S. law enacted last year that prohibits NASA from collaborating with the Cmseo.
 
Last year a Chinese delegation led by Wang Wenbao met with Dordain in Paris, where the Chinese delegation outlined current missions and the construction plan for its space station.
 
“During the meeting, the two sides made in-depth discussion on potential exchanges and cooperation in the manned space field,” the Cmseo said in a statement posted on its website.
 
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