Image: China News Service via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)
Shenzhou 7
Mission Profile
| Launch date | 2008-09-25 |
|---|---|
| Launch site | Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, LA-4/SLS-1 |
| Launch vehicle | Long March 2F (Y7) |
| Spacecraft | Shenzhou 7 |
| Target | Low Earth Orbit |
| Type | Crewed |
| End date | 2008-09-28 |
| Recovery | Land recovery — Siziwang Banner main landing site, Inner Mongolia |
| Duration | 2 days, 20 hours, 27 minutes |
Overview
Shenzhou 7 carried China's first full three-man crew — Zhai Zhigang, Liu Boming and Jing Haipeng — off the pad at Jiuquan at 13:10 UTC on 25 September 2008, 9:10 p.m. Beijing time, opening the 'second step' of the national human spaceflight program. The mission's centerpiece came on 27 September, when Zhai Zhigang floated out of the depressurized orbital module wearing the Chinese-built Feitian EVA suit and performed the country's first spacewalk, about 22 minutes long, waving a small national flag passed out by Liu Boming, who supported him from the hatch in a Russian Orlan-M suit while Jing Haipeng monitored the descent module. Zhai also retrieved an externally mounted lubricant test sample. Hours later the crew released BX-1, a 40 kg companion microsatellite that imaged the spacecraft and later tested relay and proximity operations. After 68 hours and 27 minutes of flight, the descent module landed at Siziwang Banner, Inner Mongolia at 09:37 UTC on 28 September. With one short excursion, China became the third country to master independent extravehicular activity — a capability indispensable for assembling and maintaining the space stations it planned to build.
Crew
Zhai Zhigang
Commander
Performed China's first spacewalk; later commanded Shenzhou 13
Liu Boming
Orbital Module Astronaut
Supported the EVA from the hatch in a Russian Orlan-M suit; later flew Shenzhou 12
Jing Haipeng
Descent Module Monitor
First spaceflight; went on to fly Shenzhou 9, 11 and 16
Key Milestones
2008-09-25
Liftoff from Jiuquan at 13:10:04 UTC with China's first three-person crew
2008-09-27
Zhai Zhigang performs China's first spacewalk (~22 minutes) in the Feitian suit; Liu Boming supports from the hatch in a Russian Orlan-M suit
2008-09-27
BX-1 companion microsatellite (about 40 kg) released to image the spacecraft
2008-09-28
Descent module lands at Siziwang Banner, Inner Mongolia at 09:37:40 UTC after 68 hours 27 minutes
Key Achievements
First Chinese extravehicular activity — Zhai Zhigang, about 22 minutes, 27 September 2008
First flight of the Chinese-built Feitian EVA suit
China's first three-person crew in orbit
Released the BX-1 companion microsatellite, which imaged the spacecraft in flight
Made China the third country to conduct an independent spacewalk
Legacy & Significance
Shenzhou 7's brief spacewalk carried outsized weight: EVA capability is the gateway to building and repairing structures in orbit, and the Feitian suit demonstrated that China could engineer that capability domestically. The mission marked the formal start of the program's second phase — rendezvous, docking and laboratories — and its imagery of a taikonaut waving the national flag against the blackness of space became one of the defining pictures of Chinese spaceflight. All three crew members went on to senior roles in the Tiangong station era.
