District excels in aerospace research and engineering

Minhang's prowess in aerospace has contributed to China's crewed missions in space station construction.

Three astronauts aboard China's Shenzhou-15 spaceship entered the country's space station and met with another astronaut trio on November 30. It was a historic gathering, adding additional manpower to the in-orbit space lab for the first time, with six astronauts now on board.

The Shenzhou-15 manned spaceship successfully docked with the space station combination within six and a half hours.

The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation 8th Institute in Minhang was responsible for the research and production of the docking system, battery system, telemetry telecommand and control system, propulsion cabin cable network and cabin distributor.

To ensure precise and safe docking, the research team did the catcher and buffer test 31 times on Earth and calculated the catcher and buffer capacity of the docking system under 31 working conditions including single limit deviation and compound deviation.

During the handing-over of control of the space station, the Shenzhou-14 and Shenzhou-15 spaceships, due to their different docking locations, had diverse power generation, lighting and space-earth communication conditions.

The Shenzhou-14 astronauts, who had completed all their scheduled tasks, returned to Earth on December 4 after 183 days in space.

The thrust reverser engine, also developed by the CASC 8th Institute, safeguarded the astronauts during their trip back to Earth.