Landing system ready to greet Shenzhou VI astronauts (Xinhua) Updated: 2005-10-16 09:32
SIZIWANG BANNER, Inner Mongolia - China has successfully conducted five
drills of Shenzhou VI's landing system to get well prepared for the spacecraft's
recovery, experts told a mobilization rally here Saturday.
Li Dongheng, commander of search and rescue mission, said the spacecraft will
return to the primary landing area in Siziwang Banner (county) of north China's
Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region as designated, urging all the searchers and
rescuers to get ready to fulfill mission.
Sui Qisheng, commander-in-chief of the landing system, told Xinhua that all
concerned systems and equipments works well so far, and five drills have been
conducted to improve the searching speedand efficiency so as to find out the
re-entry capsule and provide the astronauts with necessary rescue as soon as
Shenzhou VI lands.
According to weather forecast, the primary landing area will enjoy fair
weather condition in next few days, which can meet the requirements for the
spacecraft to return and land.
The landing system of China's manned spaceflight programme is the third one
in the world after the United States and Russia, said Hou Ying, chief designer
of landing system.
The landing system is composed of the main landing field, the standby landing
field, and a number of other emergency landing sites, which are equipped with
advanced radio measuring systems tohelp monitor the movements of the return
capsule.
Since China decided to begin its manned spaceflight programme in 1990s, the
country has managed to resolve problems in setting up its own search and rescue
system, Hou said.
"China's landing system of spacecraft has been improved gradually and made
remarkable achievements with the successful space flight of previous five
Shenzhou series," Hou added.
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