Shenzhou VI flight normal, return subject to weather (AFP) Updated: 2005-10-14 15:25
China's second manned space flight is going smoothly but weather conditions
at the landing site will determine the timing of its return.
Shenzhou VI, with two astronauts aboard, is scheduled for a five-day mission
after a successful launch on Wednesday from northern China's Inner Mongolia.
Xinhua news agency reported 13 landing sites have been set up to prepare for
the spacecraft's return at "any time".
Wu Guoting, a senior researcher with the China Research Institute of Space
Technology, told Xinhua news agency that the timing will be decided according to
weather conditions at the main landing area in Siziwang Banner, Inner Mongolia.
"The return may occur on, before or after the fifth day of Shenzhou VI's
lift-off," he was quoted by Xinhua as saying.
Operations on Shenzhou VI have been "very smooth" so far and there is no
indication it will be forced to return early, said Chen Lan, an independent
Chinese space analyst who runs a space website called "Go Taikonauts".
Early Friday, the spacecraft successfully carried out two operations to keep
in its original orbital path after earlier deviating slightly.
"This kind of operation is quite normal," Chen told AFP. "Every flight,
including the space shuttle, has this kind of operation."
Xinhua news agency also said that aAccording to data from the Beijing
Aerospace Command and Control Centre, "the operation has been completed
successfully".
The vessel started its 32nd orbit Friday morning, more than 48 hours after it
blasted off Wednesday from the Jiuquan launch center, said a separate Xinhua
report.
Astronauts Fei Junlong and Nie Haisheng remained in contact with the mission
command centre and has frequently been seen on state television and flight
websites via the spacecraft's onboard television camera. The two are sleeping
about seven hours each night.
"Shenzhou VI has excellently fulfilled all the planned experiments in its
second day's flight, and the anti-disturbance experiments aboard the spacecraft
proved successful," Xinhua quoted aerospace experts as saying.
The experiments included closing and reopening the internal capsule door,
moving between the orbital and re-entry capsules, taking on and off space suits,
and testing the condensation water extraction system.
They were conducted with exaggerated movements to test the effect on the
spacecraft.
"The results proved that the spacecraft was fully capable of enduring all the
disturbance, and then astronauts would be allowed to move in a relatively free
way," said Zheng Songhui, a consultant on the spacecraft.
The flight is China's second-ever manned space mission following the historic
Shenzhou V, which in October 2003 made China the third nation after the former
Soviet Union and the United States to put a man in space.
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