Today (Oct. 7) Wen Wei Po in Hong Kong cites an unnamed official as saying that depending on weather conditions; the historic SZ-5 mission would take off some time next week.

Last week the newspaper reported that the launch would not happen until the conclusion of the Third Plenum of the 16th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC). The CPC meeting will occur in Beijing from Oct. 11 to 14.

Then on Sunday (Oct. 5) a message posted on an online aerospace forum said that according to unconfirmed information from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre (JSLC) where SZ-5 would blast off, a favoured launch date could be Oct. 16, weather permitting.

If the launch happens on Oct. 16, it will coincide with the 39th anniversary of the detonation of China's first atomic bomb.

The post said that the significance of the SZ-5 launch should not be in anyway less than that of the first Chinese A-bomb blast; therefore Oct. 16 could be the sentimentally favoured date for the launch of the most important Chinese space mission to date.

On October 16, 1964, China successfully detonated an atomic bomb in Lop Nor in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, thus becoming the third country to possess the nuclear device after the United States and the former Soviet Union.

Interestingly a successful SZ-5 mission will also place China as the third nation to launch a person into space after the former Soviet Union and the U.S.

Live TV Coverage Of Launch
Separately Ta Kung Pao newspaper and Phoenix TV, both based here in Hong Kong, reports today that the government has granted permission to China Central TV (CCTV) to broadcast the launch live on Channels 4 and 9.

Phoenix TV further reports that a CCTV internal memo states that Oct. 15 is the preliminary date to carry the live broadcast, suggesting that SZ-5 could happen as early as this date if various factors are desirable.

This is an unprecedented arrangement as Chinese space launches are rarely broadcast in realtime on TV.

However, the historic significance of the mission and the immense interest both domestically and internationally has prompted officials to issue a very rare clearance to allow live TV broadcast of the launch.

Chinese officials also realize that a live TV broadcast would be a glorious opportunity to showcase its technology advancement and achievements to the world. This is a sign that the government is confident of a successful SZ-5 mission.

The four TV networks in Hong Kong are in negotiation with CCTV to carry the feed to millions of people here. If the parties reach an agreement, these networks would preempt all programming to broadcast the mission on an unlimited amount of airtime.

Ta Kung Po also reports that the General Armament Department of the People's Liberation Army (PLA), which has the sole responsibility for the launch of SZ-5, has imposed very strict rules on which media outlet could cover the mission.

For the domestic media PLA only allows reporters from CCTV, Xinhua News Agency and People's Daily to enter JSLC ahead of the launch to gather information. But these media outlets are prohibited to publish any of such information before the launch.

However, PLA would allow international news agency such as Reuters to provide live coverage inside the core area of JSLC while the rest of the domestic regional and overseas media could only watch the launch from the perimeter.

Putting all the pieces of information together, the launch window for SZ-5 will be between Oct. 15 and 18, with the 16th as a sentimentally favoured date.

It is likely that space officials will seize the first opportunity to launch the mission when conditions are right rather than on a sentimental reason.

Single Yuhangyuan Mission, But Of How Long?
An official confirmed with Wen Wei Po last Saturday (Oct. 4) that there would be only one yuhangyuan on SZ-5, which would lift off in the morning on launch day.

Yesterday (Oct. 6) Wen Wei Po also reported that space officials had chosen the group of three yuhangyuans for the final competition to go on SZ-5.

On launch day, one person from this group of three will take the precious spot on the "Divine Vessel".

However, the identity of these three yuhangyuans as well as the rest of the 11 in the yuhangyuan corps remains officially unknown.

Last week unidentified space officials said that the mission duration of SZ-5 would be a single day, "basically the same as the duration of the spaceflight operation of SZ-1."

But in an article that Wen Wei Po published last Friday (Oct. 3) on how various systems would ensure the safety of the yuhangyuan, the newspaper wrote intriguingly that "after SZ-5 circles the Earth once, the crewed capsule [Descent Module] would perform a 'soft-landing'."

It is not clear if this is a typographical error, or the newspaper really suggests that SZ-5 could be a single-orbit flight.

If the primary objective of SZ-5 is to launch and safely return the yuhangyuan, there is no reason why one orbit isn't a sufficient demonstration; much like the mission of Yuri Gagarin.

Will SZ-5 Really Be A One-Orbit Mission?
Chinese space officials have said that they will announce mission details, including the liftoff time, in advance as the launch is near. The answers to all of these questions won't be far away.

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