At 1:30 in the morning of 3rd Nov. 2011, China’s spacecraft Shenzhou-8 docked with its space lab module Tiangong-1successfully. The special lamps developed by SITP, CAS played an important role in the space docking between them.
The special lamps for space docking are installed on the outside wall of Shenzhou-8 spacecraft. They are mainly designed to provide stable and flicker-less white illumination for the TV camera and astronauts onboard a spacecraft during space docking.
At about 1:16, the lamps were turned on according to the remote control commands. They had been operating stably and illuminating Tiangong-1 ahead effectively. This was very important for the ground commanders to make correct decisions. Fig.1 shows the lamps operating in orbit.
The institute will provide such special lamps for the subsequent Shenzhou-9 , Shenzhou-10 and other spacecrafts continuously in the future.
Fig.1 The lamps installed on Shenzhou-8 spacecraft operating well.
