I ask you to build tractors, but you build rockets?

At 6 a.m. on November 19, Qiongzhou Space Launch Site.

The six astronauts took the oath at the expedition ceremony, wore Xinyuan's in-cabin spacesuits, each carried a small air conditioner, passed the red carpet lined by the media, and sat on the Coaster.

The spacesuits commissioned by Xinyuan Company are more advanced and lighter. After careful consideration, the space agency uniformly used Xinyuan's standard spacesuits in this Unity mission.

Since they are using private rockets and private space shuttles anyway, there is no need to insist on embarrassing yourself with your own bulky space suit. Moreover, Unity is a space shuttle. If the commander wears something too thick and heavy, it will be inconvenient during manual control, and it may be possible. Accidental touch.

When the Shenzhou 11 spacecraft was launched before, the space agency also discussed whether to use the Shenzhou spacecraft to send three astronauts up, but it was ultimately rejected.

The three parts of Tiangong Phase 1 can accommodate 6 astronauts just right. The Shenzhou spacecraft sent three Unity space shuttles and three Tutu. We simply used Shenzhou 11 as a cargo spacecraft to stuff a lot of supplies.

In the future, the Shenzhou spacecraft will mainly serve as an emergency escape ship and provide power and electrical energy for the assembly. It will also facilitate the return of astronauts to the ground when the space shuttle is inconvenient.

The six people got into the interior of Unity four hours before launch. After being fixed, they waited for repeated self-checks over and over again and chatted with each other.

This mission is not very scientific. Except for Zhou Rui, who is a real payload expert, the rest are professional astronauts.

There are three from the National Space Administration and one from Xinyuan. Four newcomers and two experienced ones will have to live in space for 30 to 90 days. After they come down, they will all become experienced astronauts.

The reason why the fluctuation is so large is that the longest time the space agency has stayed in space for crews was only 15 days. Although Tiangong Phase 1 is enough to support astronauts' long-term life, whether it can adapt depends on the actual situation.

In the entire space shuttle cabin, Zhou Rui is the most relaxed. Anyway, every flight is a wonderful enjoyment for him, who knows whether it will happen again in the future.

Zhao Xiaowen was already prepared but was pulled to do laser work. Xinyuan pushed him out. Deng Lei was the next batch of rotation because he performed three consecutive "high-intensity" flights and trained rookies for the company on the ground. to him.

"Liu Ming, Commander, how does it feel to pilot the Unity?"

"That's great, haha." Liu Ming had already set up the self-test program and stretched out his hand to give a thumbs up to Zhou Rui below.

Liu Ming carried out the third manned mission of the space agency. He still remembers the situation at that time. It was China's first spacewalk mission. First, the hatch could not be opened and Zhang Zhiguang forced it open, and then the orbit was blocked. A fire alarm was reported in the cabin, and both of them thought they would never come back.

Moreover, the extravehicular spacesuit is too crowded, and two people have to be careful when moving in the spacecraft. How is it like Unity? There are large portholes next to each seat, and the crew compartment that can accommodate four seats only has room for two. It is difficult for passengers sitting side by side to reach each other with their arms.

He is now very lucky that when Xinyuan Company and the space agency launched joint training, he spent nearly 200 hours on the simulator when he went to the Ulan Hashan base. When he was selected for the Unity 4 mission, his simulation time ranked second among the team. , was elected commander.

First? Captain Li was held down by the Manned Spaceflight Office, and they refused to let him go.

Unity is quite famous now. After rescuing three ISS astronauts during its mission to Remote 2, Progress was also awarded the title of "Heroic Space Shuttle" by the government, and a red star was specially painted on the tail fin.

At 9 a.m., the Xinyuan-5 rocket carrying the Unity space shuttle was launched from Station 03 of the Qiongzhou Space Launch Site, sending six astronauts into the Tiangong Space Station in a 400KM orbit.

Two hours after entering low-Earth orbit, Unity approached the Tiangong Space Station and used the docking port on the back of the aircraft to align it with the round mouth under the node module of the Yunggong core module.

At this time, the Tiangong Space Station is in the shape of a "T". Tiangong-2 and Shenzhou-11 are docked with each other in a straight line, occupying two 0.9-meter round openings. There is still a 2.5-meter square opening in the axial direction of the node module. And a 0.9-meter round port for docking with Unity.

The docking procedure is completely automatic, and Liu Ming's mission is only to serve as a backup. At this time, he and his co-pilot, Xinyuan professional astronaut Hu Dong, looked nervously at the docking interface camera.

Under the influence of RCS, Unity continued to move, and finally moved upward gently after laser alignment. After a slight vibration, it was firmly grasped by the node module.

The indicator light on the overhead hatch turns green, indicating that the air pressure in the node cabin is the same as that inside Tuanjieha, and the door can be opened.

The six people began to take off their seat belts. Hu Dong pressed the electric switch on the console. The hatch made a buzzing sound of motor action and then opened outwards.

Liu Ming grabbed the inner wall of the docking port, used a slight force, and floated into the node cabin. Then he couldn't help but take a deep breath of the space station's circulating air.

The length of the node cabin is 6 meters and the width is 7 meters. The internal square space of the docking channel is 3x3x4 meters, which is 36 cubic meters of space! It’s almost the same as Tiangong-2’s 40 cubic meters!

And because the bulkhead is made of soft white, it looks larger, and it feels like an ordinary large bedroom.

Then the other five people entered the node cabin one by one and also expressed emotion.

It’s just a node cabin and can accommodate 6 people without feeling crowded!

However, unlike them, in the ground command center and routine news broadcasts, the astronauts in the picture were stunned in the node module for a long time, and the ground thought something had happened.

Fortunately, it was just a false alarm. After the six people came to their senses, they followed the predetermined procedures and entered the core cabin, the XS-62 tourist cabin "Yungong".

The super-large square opening of 2.5x2.5 meters is much larger than the narrow docking port of the previous Shenzhou spacecraft. You may not notice it by looking at it, but when the three astronauts passed through it side by side almost at the same time, it gave all the audience a huge shock.

It is a 2.5-meter square opening. The average height of astronauts is just over 1.7 meters. They can pass through standing up, instead of crawling out of the channel carefully like crawling into a sewer.

The first person to come in was Zhou Rui. What he saw was the inside of the Yungong core cabin. The first thing he saw was a square cabin with a width and height of 4.7 meters.

The internal shape of the Yungong core cabin has two parts. Next to the core cabin is a cubic cross-section space with a width of 4.7 meters, and the second half is a circular space with a diameter of 6.8 meters.

Due to the change to 6 single bedrooms and the addition of service equipment, the space volume has been reduced from 620 cubic meters to 560 cubic meters, but it is still so spacious that it is hard to believe that this is the enjoyment that can be obtained in space.

In front of the TV sets of the main live broadcast group on the ground, countless people also shouted "Wow".

Their impression of the space capsule was that it was a stuffy can, small and narrow, but the spaciousness completely overturned their past ideas.

Just counting the area of ​​the square space, it is 96 square meters, and the three bedrooms and one living room, not counting the public stalls, are only that big.

The circular space also provides 360 cubic meters of space!

However, compared to the audience on the ground who can only sigh "Wow", the natural people are more concerned about other things.

For example, the astronauts on the ISS International Space Station are also watching the live broadcast.

The size of the Yungong Space Station is indeed enviable, but what makes people jealous the most is that in the picture, Zhou Rui casually opened a hatch. It was a separate bathroom with an area of ​​4 square meters, equipped with a toilet and bathroom, or two. one.