(China Military News cited from spacedaily.com and written by Morris Jones) -- In 2012, China will launch her first manned space mission since 2008. The gap between missions has been long, and it will be interesting to see the program continue. Despite the anticipation, we still know little about who will fly on the mission of Shenzhou 9, which is expected to dock with China's first space laboratory, Tiangong 1.
China has a pool of fully trained but unflown astronauts from its first group of flight candidates, which produced China's first manned space mission in 2003. Recently, China announced the selection of a second batch of astronauts, which includes five men and two women. Their identities remain officially concealed, despite the speculation of space analysts on some of their identities.
Who will actually fly on Shenzhou 9? At the moment, it's possible that the Chinese themselves haven't confirmed the crew. We don't even know for sure how many astronauts will be on board the spacecraft. This leaves ample room for speculation.
China has made vague statements about crews of two or three astronauts for the missions of Shenzhou 9 and 10, both of which are expected to dock with Tiangong. This suggests that there could be some experimentation in crew numbers, while the performance of both crew sizes is explored.
If China takes the cautious path, Shenzhou 9 will probably fly with a crew of only two. This could make it easier to manage events in an emergency. It also reduces the strain on logistics such as food and oxygen. Managing consumables aboard the Shenzhou spacecraft and the rather small space laboratory will be a critical issue on both missions.
China plans to test docking operations with Tiangong using the unmanned Shenzhou 8 mission, which should fly in late 2011. Nevertheless, the first manned docking and habitation of a space laboratory will be a big step to take, and will be challenging. For this reason, there is a strong possibility that the commander of Shenzhou 9 will be an experienced astronaut, flown on a previous mission. China has launched six astronauts on three flights.
