This broad project was divided into three phases: 921/1 to launch a manned mission by 2002 in a craft that became the Shenzhou, the Project 921/2 temporary space station by 2010, and the 921/3 permanent space station by 2020.
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Some small models for a space plane were made public, but the concept was rejected in favor of a Soyuz-like capsule which became Shenzhou.
A manned Shenzhou spacecraft will be used to transport crewmembers to and from the space station.
Based on the DFH-3 satellite bus, it will provide communication coverage for manned Shenzhou missions, from Shenzhou 7 onwards.
Shenzhou | Shenzhou 7 | Shenzhou 6 | Shenzhou 5 | Shenzhou (spacecraft) | Shenzhou program |
While in orbit, Nyberg was one of only two women in space on the 50th anniversary on June 16th 2013 of Vostok 6, the first spaceshot by a woman, Valentina Tereshkova, the other being Wang Yaping aboard the Tiangong-1 on the Shenzhou 10 mission.
It was said that the spacecraft flown on Shenzhou 4 had no major differences to that used on Shenzhou 5.
The Shenzhou 7 project consists of seven subsystems, with the Chinese military responsible for launching, recovering, crew, and tracking subsystems, China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation responsible for the carrier rocket and spacecraft itself, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences responsible for the payloads on board the spacecraft (other than the crew).