The Dream Aerospace Aircraft towed Shenzhou 9 and flew quickly towards the orbit where the Sky 1 target vehicle was located.

Originally, if Shenzhou 9 was to dock with Tiangong-1, it would generally follow up from the tail of Tiangong-1, Tiangong-1 would maintain a stable posture, and Shenzhou-9 would maintain the orbit through various minor orbit changes to ensure that the two sides could dock smoothly.

But this time is different, Shenzhou 9 is now completely out of power, and there is no ability to maneuver and change orbit at all, so the best way is to let Tiangong 1 change orbit to follow, slowly catch up with Shenzhou 9 from the tail, and then use the docking system of Guò Tiangong 1 to ensure successful docking.

In this process, the Dream Aerospace Aircraft only needs to ensure the stable orbit of Shenzhou 9.

The main factor now is timing.

The oxygen in Shenzhou 9 is exhausted after a maximum of one hour, and if you don't calculate the time required for orbit changes, etc., Chen Xin is really left with less than twenty minutes for their rendezvous and docking.

Fortunately, Chen Xin and the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center cooperated very tacitly, and when the Dream dragged Shenzhou-9 into the orbit of the Tiangong-1 target vehicle, Tiangong-1 had already flown to the berthing point more than 100 kilometers behind Shenzhou-9 under the control of the ground command center.

In this docking and rescue operation, the China National Space Administration used the only remaining reserve fuel in Tiangong-1 for attitude adjustment at any cost to ensure the docking attitude of Tiangong-1 and Shenzhou-9.

Originally, according to the plan, after Tiangong-1 and Shenzhou-9 completed the docking mission, they would continue to operate in space for one to two years. It will then rendezvous and dock with the Shenzhou 10 spacecraft, which is expected to lift off next year.

But after the accident of Shenzhou 9, Tiangong-1 may have to be retired early.

But now almost no one talks about it.

Compared with the technical content of this rescue operation, the space rendezvous and docking mission is as simple as a child's house.

However, how many factors behind this are the sudden situation, this operation can probably be regarded as the most difficult space rescue operation in human history.

Generally speaking, if there is an accident in a space mission, the outcome is often not very good, such as a rocket explosion, such as a satellite that fails to enter orbit and then crashes into the earth, etc.

And for manned space missions. Failure is death.

There have been many accidents during manned space missions in history.

June 30, 1971. The Soviet Union announced that three astronauts who set a record for a long-lasting voyage around the Earth were found dead when the Soyuz spacecraft returned to Earth.

On January 28, 1986, the space shuttle Challenger was launched. The O-ring seal of the solid rocket booster (SRB) on its left side failed. The adjoining external fuel tanks were structurally deactivated by the high temperature of the flames that were leaking. The space shuttle was disintegrated 73 seconds after launch due to air resistance, killing all seven astronauts on board.

The most recent was the crash of the space shuttle Columbia, at 9 a.m. EST on 1 February 2003. The U.S. space shuttle Columbia disintegrated and crashed over northern Texas, killing all seven astronauts.

The only time it was safely returned to Earth after a serious accident was the famous Apollo 13 moon landing spacecraft.

Apollo 13 was the third manned mission to the moon in the Apollo program. Two days after launch, an explosion in the oxygen tank of the service module damaged the spacecraft, causing it to lose a lot of oxygen and electricity.

The three astronauts used the spacecraft's lunar module as a lifeboat in space. The command module system was not damaged, but in order to save electricity, it was shut down before returning to the Earth's atmosphere.

The three astronauts experienced a lack of electricity, normal temperatures, and drinking water in space, but managed to return to Earth.

This incident also made these three astronauts legends in the history of manned spaceflight.

Of course, if Shenzhou 9 can return to Earth this time, the sensational effect achieved may not be much smaller than that of Apollo 13.

After all, we have entered the information age, and the speed of information dissemination should not be too fast.

Especially this time, when I learned of the accident on Shenzhou 9, almost the attention of the world's media was attracted.

Agence France-Presse, Reuters, Kyodo News, Associated Press and other world-renowned news agencies immediately released news that the Shenzhou 9 spacecraft was hit by space junk after liftoff and was damaged. The article analyzes the progress of China's manned space program in recent years, and says that the failure of this mission may be an unprecedented blow to China's manned space program.

Even after the Chinese government said it would do its best to rescue Shenzhou-9, few were optimistic that the Shenzhou-9 spacecraft would return safely, and the British newspaper The Times even viciously said that China had prepared tombstones for the three astronauts.

It's just that when they discuss these topics, no one would have thought that at an altitude of hundreds of kilometers above their heads, the largest and most complex space rescue operation in human history is underway.

……

When the distance between Tiangong-1 and Shenzhou-9 reached 100 kilometers, the docking procedure of the two spacecraft was officially initiated.

First of all, with the support of ground tracking and control, Tiangong-1 smoothly captured the laser signal of Shenzhou-9 after several attitude adjustments and subtle orbit change maneuvers.

Subsequently, Tiangong-1 began to gradually approach Shenzhou-9 according to the relative motion parameters measured by its own microwave and laser sensors with Shenzhou-9, and the distance between the two sides gradually approached from 100 kilometers at the beginning to 50 kilometers, 30 kilometers, and 10 kilometers......

As the distance approaches, the relative velocity of the two gradually decreases, from the initial 800 meters per second to 500 meters, 300 meters, 100 meters, and 50 meters per second.

Especially by the last kilometer, the relative velocity between the two becomes 20 meters per second.

According to the calculations of the steel hammer, the probability of success of this docking is quite high.

However, just in case, Chen Xin changed into an extravehicular spacesuit, took a DV in the name of shooting a souvenir, and leisurely dragged out of the Dream space plane flying in front of Shenzhou 9, and then started shooting at the head of Shenzhou 9 (the tail of Shenzhou 9 flew forward).

looked at Tiangong No. 1 not far away, slowly approaching.

Tiangong-1 uses a measurement system composed of a camera sensor and a proximity sensor to accurately measure the distance, relative speed and attitude of the two aircraft, and at the same time starts the small engine to maneuver to make it finally approach the target along the docking corridor.

At the last moment of docking, Tiangong-1 turned off the engine and gently collided with the Shenzhou-9 spacecraft at a docking speed of 0.15~0.18 m/s, and then used the gripper, buffer, force transmission mechanism and locking mechanism of the bolt-cone or allogeneic isomorphic peripheral docking device to make the two aircraft hard connected in the structure to complete the connection of the information transmission bus, power line and fluid pipeline. (To be continued......)

PS: According to the plan, this chapter should be the last update in 2014, but because the monthly ticket list was too competitive before, the steel hammer was constantly refreshed, and then the speed of this chapter dragged down, so I had to make it the first update in 2015.

Very unexpectedly, in the last three hours, the steel hammer actually completed a big reversal, and unbelievably achieved the goal of the top six set at the beginning of the month, and the seventh place is only two votes away, because it is a double monthly ticket period, the actual gap is only one vote.

Again, I would like to express my gratitude to all the book friends who have supported "Machine Qì People Clone", in the past year, this book has experienced daily, weekly, and monthly changes, but after all, it has a good ending.

In the new year, "Machine Qì Human Clone" will continue to maintain the current update momentum, and will also strive to satisfy everyone.

Bow again and thank you!!