China's Long March 2F rocket launched the Shenzhou 20 crew to the Tiangong space station from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on April 24, 2025 at 5:17am ET (5:17pm BJT)
The Shenzhou 20 crew is commander Chen Dong, on his third trip to space, and rookie astronauts Chen Zhongrui and Wang Jie, both of whom were selected for China's third intake of astronauts in 2020.
The Shenzhou 20 crew is commander Chen Dong, on his third trip to space, and rookie astronauts Chen Zhongrui and Wang Jie, both of whom were selected for China's third intake of astronauts in 2020.
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LearningTranscript
00:00I believe that at this moment the onboard computer of the launch vehicle has already in charge of everything.
00:07It looks like the orange arms are still connected right now.
00:10It will rotate soon.
00:12Oh, it's happening right now.
00:14You can see that the Shenzheng 19 crew is watching the live coverage.
00:22Okay, all detached.
00:24So the rocket is now completely on its own.
00:2730 seconds.
00:3020 seconds to go.
00:37Every system is go for launch.
00:4610 seconds.
00:486, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
00:54Salute.
01:006, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
01:05It's over.
01:06It's over.
01:07It's changed the direction of the flight from vertical direction to the east.
01:09There's a slight adjustment in the flight trajectory.
01:14So beautiful.
01:15There's a slight adjustment in the flight trajectory.
01:16So beautiful.
01:17And there it is, that's the Shenzheng 20.
01:18That's the Shenzheng 20.
01:19So we can hear the voice of the ground station that the tracking is normal.
01:25And you can see this beautiful view.
01:26How many adjustments would you have to make?
01:27How many adjustments would the rocket would you have to make in this trajectory on the way there?
01:33Is there a set?
01:34To change its direction constantly.
01:35Continuously.
01:36Okay, look.
01:37This is the camera mounted on the launch vehicle.
01:38Looking backwards.
01:39Yeah, we're getting a really good view because it's daytime as well.
01:40And also you can see two of the four rocket boosters.
01:41Each with a diameter of 2.25 meters.
01:42That's those would be jettisoned a little bit later on in the flight.
01:43Usually at about 100 km.
01:44I'm not sure how many people are here, but I'm not sure how many people are here.
01:45How many adjustments would the rocket would you have to make in this trajectory on
01:46the way there?
01:47Is there a set?
01:48You have to change its direction constantly.
01:50Continuously.
01:51Okay, look.
01:52This is the camera mounted on the launch vehicle.
01:56Looking backwards.
01:57Yeah, we're getting a really good view because it's daytime as well.
02:00And also you can see two of the four rocket boosters.
02:03That's right.
02:04Each with a diameter of 2.25 meters.
02:07That's, those would be jettisoned a little bit later on in the flight.
02:10Usually at about 120 seconds after the lift off.
02:14I imagine the Shenzhou 19 crew are sitting there remembering, recalling when they were lifting off.
02:19You can still see the camera inside the cabin,
02:22but although the vibration and the g-forces are already acting on the bodies of the astronauts,
02:28still they are very calm.
02:31So the first critical step will be the jet-discending of the emergency escape tower.
02:37So that's the one at the top?
02:39So several seconds later, it's close.
02:46I mean, the 19 crew must also be excited that the 20 is coming to take over for them so that they can head home.
02:53I believe they've already prepared the dinner for them.
02:55Yeah, yeah.
02:56Then only a few more days before they can head home themselves.
03:01Okay, jettisoned.
03:03That's the escape tower that's going to be.
03:05The escape tower has jettisoned because it's already high enough
03:08and the aerodynamic forces have already been low level, not necessary to remain on the top.
03:14At what point will these astronauts stop feeling the g-forces and the vibration?
03:18Yeah.
03:19So next will be the separation of the four boosters.
03:21Should be seeing that any moment, right?
03:25You can see that although it's daytime, by the background you can see the sky is already black.
03:30Hmm.
03:31Because this is already near the vacuum condition.
03:33Oh, that's the...
03:35Okay, separated.
03:36Boosters.
03:37They all go at the same time, right?
03:38Yeah.
03:39So you can see the four boosters form across.
03:42And also the first stage has already successfully separated from the long vehicle.
03:48Now the second stage, the second core stage has already been ignited.
03:52Mm-hmm.
03:53And at this point, are the astronauts still feeling the g-forces?
03:57Exactly.
03:58They can feel both the vibrations.
04:00Because even outside the atmosphere, still the working of the rocket engines can form the vibration.
04:06So this is a camera mounted on the second stage.
04:11You can see that the Earth in the daytime is very bright.
04:16Right.
04:17So this is a camera mounted in the payload ferry.
04:20You can see the solar panels in the folding condition.
04:24And the solar panels are very...
04:26In several seconds, we will see...
04:27Oh, okay.
04:28There it is.
04:29Beautiful.
04:30And the solar panels are obviously the important indicator here.
04:32At this moment, Mr. Chenunui and Dr. Wang,
04:35Wang Jiechi can enjoy the view.
04:37Ha ha ha.
04:44They're back to their manuals again.
04:46So they changed it to the different pages.
04:49Because it's in a different stage.
04:54So what else is there to jettison now?
04:56So they've jettisoned the emergency tower, the emergency escape, the boosters, the payload.
05:02First stage.
05:03And then the payload ferrying.
05:05So the next step, you know, that will last for many minutes.
05:10Because you know that although the second stage of our Long March 2F Long Trico only has one engine,
05:17it has one main engine and four vernier engines.
05:20The vernier engines, the thrust is very small, but it can change its direction to keep the right attitude.
05:26Look, this is a camera mounted on the rear part of the second stage of our Long March 2F Long Trico.
05:31You can see the big nozzle is the main engine.
05:37We can hear the voice of the ground station that the flight is normal and the ground stations can track the Long Trico very normally.
05:45Which is good to know.
05:46Well, you can see one of the vernier engines, the smaller nozzle, you can see very clearly.
05:54So this is the camera mounted on the second stage.
05:59Is it now more comfortable for the astronauts?
06:02Not very comfortable.
06:03Still not.
06:04With less propellants.
06:06Okay.
06:07You can see also still Dr. Wang Jie is still looking at the manual.
06:14Probably helps to calm the nerves as well.
06:17So you may notice that this time from the Shenzhou spacecraft, we can see the high definition video from inside.
06:24Yes.
06:25It follows the high definition standard, 1080 pixels solution.
06:31And this has been an upgrade as well, right?
06:33For this particular mission.
06:34Yes, it's upgraded.
06:39Very bright.
06:40Okay.
06:41The Qingdao ground station near the eastern coast of China has already captured the Long Trico.
06:47So Qingdao is the last ground station in mainland of China.
06:52So the next will be the space tracking ships.
06:56So you can have a very beautiful view of the very bright earth.
07:03Yeah.
07:04So in the daytime and also the black sky, even in daytime.
07:08Mm.
07:09So we've got images there on the right of the Shenzhou 19 crew on the Tian Gong at the bottom.
07:15And then our Shenzhou 20 crew inside the capsule.
07:20There is a very interesting thing before.
07:22You know that Mr. Jing Hai Peng is also watching the live coverage of China Media Group.
07:29And your colleague say hello to him.
07:34And he can't respond.
07:36Because he's watching the live coverage of CCTV.
07:38So why is it that the solar panels that's such an important indicator of a successful launch?
07:51Because you know that for the storage battery of international space, we only have a limited volume or capacity of the storage battery.
08:00So we need the solar panels to provide continuous power supply.
08:03So that is the reason we only announce the success of a launch mission when the solar panels is normally unfolded and extended to a very big one.
08:13It means the continuous stable supply.
08:15Yeah, exactly.
08:16So electricity is very important for flight mission.
08:20But after docking to the space station, the power system can be combined together.
08:25Right.
08:26And there's the Qing Dao monitoring station again.
08:30Okay, Qing Dao monitoring station has already both the upstream link and the downstream link.
08:35So you can see the flame of the nozzles are quite different from those on the ground.
08:44And the type of fuel that these rockets use, can you just tell us a little bit more about that again?
08:48Well, you know, that's the main engine of the second station.
08:54It will work for a very long time.
08:56And it will shut down first.
08:58But this is not the end of the mission of the launch vehicle.
09:01So the full vernier engines, you can see the rotation of the vernier engines.
09:05The full vernier engines will work longer to adjust the trajectory to make it precise enough.
09:12So they are laughing.
09:16It's a good sign.
09:18And Professor Yang, so all these pieces of the rocket that's been shed, that would just fall back to us.
09:25And what will happen to them?
09:26Do they get retrieved again?
09:28Do they just get left?
09:29No, no, no.
09:30Because, you know, the Long March 2F is not a reusable long vehicle.
09:34But in the future, probably Long March 10 for the next generation spaceship will be a reusable one.
09:41And that leads me to ask as well, because this time one of the important missions for the 20 crew is to install that protective device against space debris, right?
09:55How big of a problem is space debris?
09:58You know, we've already met some problems.
10:00You know that the core module, Tianhe 1, have two solar panels.
10:06One of the panels was slightly damaged by the space debris, the cables.
10:13So the Shenzhou 18 crew and the Shenzhou 19 crew have already done some attacks.
10:20So this problem has already been solved.
10:22Okay.
10:23So that's the reason why we need the protection.
10:26Hmm.
10:27Are we hearing another ground station there?
10:28Okay.
10:29The ground tracking, the space tracking ships have already captured.
10:31You can see on the bottom right, we can see the 3D simulation.
10:35Oh, the main engine has already cut off.
10:37Ah.
10:38Ah.
10:39Oh.
10:40Oh.
10:41The warning engine also shut off.
10:42So now the shuttle, the spacecraft, is on its own.
10:49Okay.
10:50So the Long March 20 launch vehicle has already accomplished its task.
10:56You can see the smiles on people's faces now at your chin.
11:00So at this moment, we will not only unfold the solar panels, but also we will release our antenna of the data release system.
11:12Because you know that for high speed transmission, we need a relatively big antenna to point accurately to our Tianlian data release satellite.
11:25Tianlu is a data release satellite.
11:28Tianlu is a data release satellite.
11:33They're saying that everything is normal.
11:35So the Shenzhou 19 crew is also watching the live coverage of CMG.
11:41Yeah, so aside from that installation of that protective device, there's also mention of a robot that might be used up there with…
11:58Already used.
11:59We can show a video also from CMG that Ms. Wang Hauser is testing the small robot, called maybe Xiao Fei, inside the cabin.
12:10Okay, the Grand Station, also we heard the voice reporting the normal status.
12:17I just, in the previous, I noticed that Dr. Wang Jie is enjoying the microgravity with his pen.
12:27So this robot, what would that be used for then? Will it be able to complete any…
12:32To be a digital assistant.
12:34Okay. Would it be able to help with any of these more dangerous missions, you know, like EVA?
12:39No, this is inside the cabin. So not like the robotic arms outside the station. So they can make the work more simply and more easily, but not reduce the risk.
12:54You know that the robotic arm plays a very important role in the operation of a space station.
13:00Oh, the solar panels are unfolded.
13:03A really beautiful view from the, actually speaking, the propulsion module of our Shenzhou spacecraft.
13:09You know that the Shenzhou spacecraft have three modules, the orbital module, the re-entry capsule, and the propulsion module.
13:15So this is a camera mounted on the propulsion module, and it can monitor one of the solar panels.
13:22And this is very important.
13:26Also, you know that we have two systems concerning about the Tianlian data research.
13:33One can transmit important critical parameters, and one can transmit high, very heavy data streams.
13:42So we need…
13:43That's why we need a big antenna for this Tianyan data release satellite.
13:50To transmit the videos.
13:53We were just hearing earlier the ground staff there saying that the solar panels have opened up.
13:59But I believe that the Shenzhou spacecraft will enter the shadow area very soon.
14:05And what will that mean?
14:06What sort of impact will that have?
14:07Which means that they will be at night.
14:10Okay.
14:11So not much change for them.
14:13There's nothing to have to adjust or for the spacecraft to do.
14:19You're saying the solar panels have expanded?
14:22But still, but don't worry, we have plenty of energy in the storage batteries.
14:27So usually in the shadow area, the Shenzhou spacecraft only need to fly about less than 40 minutes.
14:36Right.
14:37So at this moment, still we cannot announce the success of the launch.
14:45Only when we double check the accuracy of the orbital parameters of the Shenzhou spacecraft.
14:52Only it's accurate enough, we can announce that it is a successful launch.
14:57When you say accurate enough, meaning what exactly?
15:00It means that the energy or the propellants inside the propulsion module of the Shenzhou spacecraft
15:06is good enough to catch up with the Tiengung space station
15:12and have the chance to correct all errors and stop with the Tiengung space station.
15:17Hmm.
15:18That should be pretty soon, right?
15:20Judging by the past procedures.
15:21Pretty soon, but we still need some, you know that there are different data sources.
15:25We have the measurements inside the Shenzhou spacecraft.
15:32Also, we have the data from the devices which can help with the help of the laser navigation satellites.
15:39We also have the ground stations together with the space tracking ships to have different data sources.
15:46And finally, we can have a very accurate determination of the orbit of the Shenzhou 20.
15:52We also have the leadership.
15:53For some transparency.
15:54And that's why we are working on the 조alty point gratuitantly under a real-time control
15:56ography and the gas regulatory tension provided.
15:57Using that the Falcons layer of the policy through demand.
15:58So from the
16:12확인 solution to the FARobyl process within therat able to upper isolation,
16:13this is very accurate to allow some assistance.
16:14While there are among these governments to actually use its requirement to believe that
16:19But judging from previous experiences watching these launches, the time for all of this is very well controlled, right?
16:31I mean, it seems to be kind of pretty much always on the mark.
16:34It's like within half an hour of the launch, everything's declared a success.
16:38So it's down to the second.
16:42So although at that time, all the time, it's been around for several days.
16:49But most critical ones should be a design.
16:53So it's not a coincidence that every time we have the right movement to do the right thing.
16:59Yeah, it's incredibly precise. It's impressive.
17:03You can see that they have opened their face masks.
17:07So this means that the most dangerous part of this launch has already been successful.
17:13And they can be relaxed.
17:19So now they're not feeling any of these forces or vibrations.
17:24They are enjoying the microgravity now.
17:27So from now on, it would be about how many hours until they reach the Tian Gong?
17:466.5 hours.
17:486.5 hours from now.
17:50We just heard from the ground crew that the perigee of the nearest lowest point of Shenzhou 20 is 200 kilometers.
18:00And the highest point of the apogee of the Shenzhou spacecraft is 359 kilometers.
18:06So he's communicating again with all of those tracking stations.
18:17So in our tradition before, the chief of the Tokyo Celebration Center will announce the success.
18:236.5 hours.
18:246.5 hours.
18:256.5 hours.
18:267.5 hours.
18:277.5 hours.
18:287.5 hours.
18:298.5 hours.
18:308.5 hours.
18:318.5 hours.
18:32As we discussed, the Shenzhou spacecraft is already a very practical one.
18:36And also we have an experience with not only the design and manufacturing tests of the Shenzhou spacecraft,
18:44but also our long-term 48% system.
18:49I think we're going to get that important message soon.
19:04Based on the flight data and the calculations by Beijing Aerospace Control Center, the Long March 2F Y-20 carrier rocket has sent Shenzhou-20 manned spacecraft to the pre-set orbit.
19:23The solar panel has been unfolded and is functioning well.
19:27Now I declare the launch of Shenzhou-20 manned mission a complete success. Thank you.
19:34You can see the big red screen.
19:37I feel the need to applaud as well.
19:41Okay.
19:43And that message there just says congratulations to the Shenzhou-20 for successfully launching.