"Heaven" and "God" embrace each other as scheduled. The astronauts have arrived! At 17:42 on June 5, 2022, the Shenzhou 14 manned spacecraft adopted the autonomous rapid rendezvous and docking mode. After six orbit changes, it successfully docked the radial ports of the Tianhe core module. The whole docking process lasted about 7 hours. Subsequently, three astronauts successfully entered the space and core module. Under the control of the guidance, navigation and control system developed by institute 502 of the Fifth Academy of Aerospace Science and technology group, the whole process of Shenzhou 14's visit to the "heavenly palace" was smooth, orderly, fast and accurate, and the overall performance was perfect. This marks the complete success of the second radial rendezvous and docking of Shenzhou manned spacecraft in space, and once again verifies the stability and reliability of China's rendezvous and docking technology. This mission is also the 10th rendezvous and docking mission of Shenzhou series spacecraft in orbit. Since the first rendezvous and docking between Shenzhou 8 and Tiangong 1 in 2011, "Shenzhou" and "Tiangong" have not only danced together for ten times, but also innovated and became more advanced each time. Behind this, the three generations of rendezvous and docking researchers have adhered to and worked hard for 30 years. How difficult it is to grow from nothing The outline of the national high technology research and development program (863 Program) issued in 1986 clearly listed such space projects as "large launch vehicle and space shuttle transportation system" and "manned space station system and its application", which pressed the start button for the implementation of China's manned space program. After in-depth and systematic demonstration, in 1992, the central special commission and the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee successively approved the manned spaceflight project. Since then, bearing the hope of the Chinese nation, China's manned space program has embarked on a long journey. Rendezvous and docking technology is a key technology that must be broken through to develop manned spaceflight and promote engineering tasks, but it was still a blank in China at that time. Therefore, researcher linlaixing, researcher wangxudong, researcher sunchengqi and academician wuhongxin from institute 502 of the Fifth Academy of Aerospace Science and technology group took the lead to look here and carried out exploratory research work around the concept and control method of rendezvous and docking. Since 1999, relevant research has gradually entered the feasibility demonstration stage, with researcher Xie Yongchun as the technical director. In 2002, the national rendezvous and docking mission plan was formally established. The Fifth Academy of Aerospace Science and Technology Group established a rendezvous and docking Engineering Group in Institute 502. Under the guidance of researcher sunchengqi, it began to tackle key technical problems and feasibility study of "guidance, navigation and control technology of manned transport spacecraft". During the scheme demonstration, in addition to a large amount of research on foreign technical materials, Institute 502 also sent representatives to exchange and study abroad. At the exchange meeting, due to the lack of effective understanding of the rendezvous and docking project by Chinese technicians, foreign experts even repeatedly criticized our problems as "naive". In the face of great practical challenges and the different views of international peers, the scientific researchers of the Fifth Academy of Aerospace Science and Technology Group gritted their teeth and showed their strength in developing the dongfanghong-1 satellite, relying on themselves and starting from scratch Not afraid to fight, dare to bite hard bones In 2003, Shenzhou V successfully launched China's first manned space mission. Two years later, Shenzhou VI carried two more astronauts to and from space. Since then, China has broken through and mastered the manned space shuttle technology, becoming the third country in the world with the ability to independently carry out manned space activities. After the first step of China's manned space project is successfully completed, according to the project plan, the second step is to break through the technology of astronauts' extravehicular activities, spacecraft rendezvous and docking technology, launch a space laboratory, and solve the space application problems with a certain scale and short-term care. At the same time, Shenzhou manned spacecraft is required to aim at the international advanced level and have the dual capabilities of automatic rendezvous and docking and manual rendezvous and docking. In 2005, rendezvous and docking was officially approved. Breaking through this core technology, achieving leapfrog development and catching up with and surpassing the world advanced level has become one of the most urgent tasks for researchers. No matter how difficult it is. On the basis of more than ten years' work accumulation, Institute 502 has assembled capable forces to form a research team and officially started the engineering implementation of rendezvous and docking program. Xie Yongchun, together with huhaixia, Shi Lei, Wang Ying, and Zhang Hao, chenchangqing, Liu Tao, Wang Min, who graduated and joined the company after graduation, participated in the project... Around the rendezvous and docking technology, the three generations have inherited their spiritual strength while completing the technical handover. The time left for them is less than 6 years, but there are many problems: how does the number and layout of light spots of the imaging sensor target marker affect the measurement accuracy? How to judge the relative position and attitude of two spacecraft only by images? How to change tracks by ground command within 50km Dare to bite a hard bone, can sit on the bench, this team has never been afraid to fight. As far as the working mode of rendezvous and docking and the autonomous switching logic are concerned, they spent half a year drawing and modifying again and again. After the modification, they asked experts for their opinions, and then studied and improved again and again according to the opinions. In this way, with solid theoretical foundation and hard research, they finally fully mastered the theoretical basis of relative dynamics kinematics characteristics, thruster plume characteristics, relative guidance, navigation and control principles, and designed a self-contained rendezvous and docking guidance, navigation control scheme and an algorithm easy to implement in engineering in combination with the control technology characteristics of Chinese spacecraft. "Thousands of miles of needles", the boat station embraces each other quickly At 1:29 a.m. on november3,2011, Shenzhou VIII spacecraft, which had undergone nearly 43 hours of flight and five orbit changes, successfully docked with the long-awaited Tiangong-1 target aircraft, and staged a "ten thousand mile needle piercing" spectacle belonging to China in the distant space - marking that China has become the third country in the world to independently master rendezvous and docking technology. In 2012, China's first manual rendezvous and docking mission was a complete success in the Shenzhou 9 and Tiangong 1 missions. However, from the perspective of technological development, in order to reduce the burden of astronauts, reduce excessive and excessive dependence on ground stations, and improve the stability and reliability of the whole process, space rendezvous and docking will develop in the direction of "autonomy + speed". Since 2013, Institute 502 has started to research independent rapid rendezvous and docking technology. On June 17, 2021, Shenzhou 12 successfully implemented rapid rendezvous and docking for the first time; On October 16 of the same year, Shenzhou 13 successfully implemented radial rendezvous and docking for the first time; On June 5, 2022, Shenzhou 14 staged another scene in space: "heaven and God don't have to wait, and the ship stations embrace each other quickly" "When you come to the heavenly palace in summer, you can't be poor looking at the railing." This time, the three astronauts set out on Shenzhou 14, which will not only appreciate the vast space, but also build China's "heavenly palace" bigger and stronger. The rendezvous and docking team of institute 502 of the Fifth Academy of Aerospace Science and technology group is also making efforts to make this technology more mature, intelligent and advanced, so as to effectively support the smooth implementation of subsequent space station construction and operation, manned lunar landing and Mars sampling return. (Xinhua News Agency)