Report: first Chinese manned mission nearly ended in disaster
Posted: Tue, Aug 14, 2007, 9:19 AM ET (1319 GMT)
China's first manned space mission, Shenzhou 5, nearly had a fatal ending when spacecraft controllers could not communicate or locate the spacecraft during reentry, Chinese officials said Monday. Engineers had anticipated that there would be a communications blackout during the reentry of Shenzhou 5 in October 2003, carrying Chinese astronaut Yang Liwei, but were unable to locate the capsule on radar during that time, and "the echo signals from the spaceship were still volatile" after the capsule emerged from the blackout area, according to a report by the Xinhua official news agency. Without tracking information, controllers risked not deploying parachutes at the proper time and thus risked a crash. Controllers were able to eventually used ground-based cameras to locate the spacecraft and have it come down safely, although the capsule did land nine kilometers from its planned site.
China's first manned space mission, Shenzhou 5, nearly had a fatal ending when spacecraft controllers could not communicate or locate the spacecraft during reentry, Chinese officials said Monday. Engineers had anticipated that there would be a communications blackout during the reentry of Shenzhou 5 in October 2003, carrying Chinese astronaut Yang Liwei, but were unable to locate the capsule on radar during that time, and "the echo signals from the spaceship were still volatile" after the capsule emerged from the blackout area, according to a report by the Xinhua official news agency. Without tracking information, controllers risked not deploying parachutes at the proper time and thus risked a crash. Controllers were able to eventually used ground-based cameras to locate the spacecraft and have it come down safely, although the capsule did land nine kilometers from its planned site.
Related Links:
| <<previous article | next article>> |
|
news in brief
|
|
Blue Origin announces new upper stage and engine for New Glenn
Posted: Sat, Nov 7 12:07 PM ET (1707 GMT) |
|
news links
|
|
Wednesday, November 11
Firefly Aerospace Signs Multi-Launch Agreement with Synspective for up to 10 Alpha Missions Through 2030
Firefly Aerospace — 5:40 am ET (1040 GMT) Firefly Aerospace Announces Third Quarter 2026 Financial Results With Record Backlog of $1.7 Billion
Firefly Aerospace — 5:40 am ET (1040 GMT) Air Force wants AI for cislunar space vehicles
Defensescoop — 5:39 am ET (1039 GMT) Blue Origin to bring 2,000 jobs to Hutto
Community Impact Newspaper — 5:29 am ET (1029 GMT) Advocates urge Cameron County leaders to reject $24B SpaceX data center and power plant
KRGV-TV Weslaco, TX — 5:25 am ET (1025 GMT) |
