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
|
|
|
|
news links
|
|
Wednesday, October 22
Eutelsat Communications: First Quarter 2025-26 Revenues
Business Wire — 5:06 am ET (0906 GMT) Musk rages at Trump's Transportation head on X: He "is trying to kill NASA!"
Axios — 4:58 am ET (0858 GMT) Muon Satellites To Use SpaceX Starlink Laser Comms
Aviation Week — 4:57 am ET (0857 GMT) SpaceX targets Wednesday morning for Starlink launch out of Vandenberg Space Force Base
KSBY-TV San Luis Obispo, CA — 4:56 am ET (0856 GMT) Oman spaceport seeks to lure launchers from Europe, Asia
Semafor — 4:53 am ET (0853 GMT) |
