Chinese spacecraft passes

China launched Shenzou VII with three taikonauts aboard. The mission is expected to last a few days, or about 70 hours. Although this is the third space flight for the Chinese Space Agency, an interesting aspect of this flight is that they plan on a space walk. Zhai Zhigang is a 42 year old fighter pilot and will perform the walk either Friday or Saturday. The spacewalk will be a first for China.

Lucklily, in West Virginia, I will stand a pretty good chance at spotting the capsule as it passes over. Here is a list of passes for my area in as derived from Heavens-above.com:

Date	Mag	Starts			Max. altitude			Ends
		Time	Alt.	Az.	Time	Alt.	Az.	Time	Alt.	Az.
25 Sep	4.3	19:39:13	10	WNW	19:41:52	33	N	19:44:30	10	ENE
25 Sep	5.4	21:14:58	10	WNW	21:16:20	24	NW	21:16:20	24	NW
26 Sep	4.0	19:58:59	10	WNW	20:01:40	36	N	20:03:48	14	ENE
26 Sep	6.5	21:34:35	10	WNW	21:34:58	13	WNW	21:34:58	13	WNW
27 Sep	3.3	20:18:36	10	WNW	20:21:25	53	NNE	20:22:27	32	ENE
28 Sep	3.0	20:38:13	10	WNW	20:41:04	73	SSW	20:41:10	72	S
29 Sep	3.4	19:22:15	10	WNW	19:25:03	53	NNE	19:27:52	10	E
29 Sep	5.0	20:58:04	10	W	20:59:58	25	SW	20:59:58	25	SW
30 Sep	3.1	19:41:52	10	WNW	19:44:43	74	SSW	19:47:33	10	ESE
1 Oct	4.7	20:01:42	10	W	20:04:13	28	SSW	20:06:41	10	SSE
2 Oct	6.1	20:22:36	10	WSW	20:23:36	11	SW	20:24:34	10	SSW
4 Oct	6.4	19:26:14	10	WSW	19:27:14	11	SW	19:28:13	10	SSW

It looks like each pass will take place during the evening hours. The times will change as the Chinese are expected to adjust their orbit, but I think it should be pretty close.