Abstract: Manned spacecraft has the characteristics of large system scale, high technical difficulty, single piece and small batch production, inability to continuously improve the design through multiple flights, and high reliability requirements. Currently, some problems in the development of manned spacecraft still exist, such as low degree of parameterization and modeling, lack of comprehensive simulation and verification of model-based systems, lack of digital integration in all aspects of development. The traditional text-based system engineering method cannot meet the development requirements, resulting in the urgent need to adopt the model-based system engineering method. Based on the development status and application requirements of manned spacecraft, a model system for the whole life cycle of manned spacecraft is proposed and six types of models including the demand model, function model, product model, engineering model, manufacturing model and implementation model are defined. The model-based development process consisting of closed-loop verification of system design, closed-loop verification of product design, and implementation of product is presented. In addition, the transfer and correlation between different models in each development link are explored. The proposed method is systematically verified based on the application of a certain manned spacecraft.

Key words: model-based system engineering, manned spacecraft, whole life cycle, development process, practice