The combination of the Shenzhou-19 crewed spaceship atop its Long March-2F Y18 carrier rocket got ready for the imminent vertical transfer to the launching area at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China on Tuesday.
At around 15:00 on Tuesday, the technical staff at the assembly test building were making final checks before transferring the combination to the launching pad 1.5 kilometers away.
The engineers had completed the removal of the air supply hose from the rocket fairing, and cleaned, closed and inspected all the connections between the fairing and the outside to ensure that the inside of the fairing is safely isolated from the outside environment during the transfer.
In an interview with China Central Television, Gao Minzhong, senior engineer with the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, detailed more preparatory work at the final assembly test building ahead of the transfer.
"The pre-transfer work can be summarized into four major aspects. The first is the check and test of the rocket ship and escape tower in the technical area. The second is the propellant filling and cylinders filling of the spacecraft. The third is to dock the spacecraft escape tower and the assembled rocket assembly to form a spaceship-rocket-escape tower combination. And the fourth is to complete all the preparatory work before the transfer today. Now, each system is working smoothly, and the preparatory work has been completed. The conditions for vertical transfer are in place," Gao said.
The combination is set to move towards the launching pad at around 16:00 on a mobile launch platform along a seamless rail. The engineer noted that the timing of the transfer depends mainly on the temperature, wind speed and track conditions.
The ideal temperature is 0 to 30 degrees Celsius, and the conditions at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center are just right, according to Gao.
"The total height of the spaceship-rocket-escape tower combination on the mobile launch platform is nearly 70 meters, so there are relatively strict requirements for the wind speed, which should be controlled to below 10 meters per second. There is a 1.5-kilometer specially-built track for vertical transfer from the assembling building to the launch pad. The transfer has high requirements for the track gauge, flatness and straightness, with millimeter-level accuracy," Gao explained.
China is scheduled to launch the Shenzhou-19 crewed spaceship and welcome the Shenzhou-18 crew back to the Earth in late October, according to the China Manned Space Agency earlier this month.
The three-member Shenzhou-18 crew was sent into space on April 25.
China's Shenzhou-19 crewed spaceship ready for vertical transfer to launching pad
