[November 30, 1999] Message From Yeltsin Russian President Boris Yeltsin sent a message
to Chinese President Jiang Zemin to congratulate China on
the successfully launch of the "Shenzhou"
spaceship, said the Russian Presidential Press Service on
Sunday. "Russia is pleased by successes of friendly
China in the high-tech aerospace sphere and wishes new
achievements to your country, " Yeltsin said in the
message.(Xinhua)
[November 30, 1999] More Details About Shenzhou
Landing and the Orbital Module PLA Daily reported that Shenzhou landing was
"with good status". The touch down point was
only 12km away from the predicted position. Evidences
found from the capsule and nearby area show that the
touch down rocket worked well. No damages and
abnormalities found from the capsule structure, the heat
shell and the sealing components. All discarded parts
were found within 5km around the landing point. The
newspaper also reported that the orbital module will stay
in orbit for planned experiments.
[November 30, 1999] Manned Flight Unlikely in
2000 One of Shenzhou designers said on a Chinese
newspaper that he does not believe a manned flight could
happen in 2000. China has not set the date for the first
manned mission. It could be in any time as long as all
systems proven ready. He said Shenzhou was not equipped
with a docking system in this launch but has an
"additional segment" that could be replaced by
the docking unit in future.
[November 30, 1999] Jiang Zemin Inspects Shenzhou
Capsule President Jiang Zemin Wednesday inspected the
recovered capsule of the "Shenzhou" spacecraft
that successfully conducted China's first space mission
over the weekend. Vice-President Hu Jintao, Zhang Wannian
and Chi Haotian, both vice-chairmen of the Central
Military Commission, also inspected the capsule. At about
5 pm, Jiang visited the Beijing Aerospace Technology
Research and Experiment Center at the Aerospace City and
carefully observed the capsule as it was opened. Jiang
asked questions about the capsule. When asked what is the
material of capsule's heat resistant shell, Qi Faren, the
chief designer of the spacecraft, answered
"composite material". (Xinhua, CAST)
[November 30, 1999] Qi Faren Talks About Shenzhou The Shenzhou spaceship is the most complex
spacecraft ever build in China. It has 13 subsystems. In
addition to the subsystems of normal unmanned spacecraft,
Shenzhou has others including environment control and
life support system, and an emergency escape subsystem.
Development of the 13 subsystems was undertaken by more
than 300 organisations in China. Shenzhou is composed of
four sections. They are the propellant (service) section,
the re-entry section, the orbital section that is unique
to the Chinese spaceship, and the additional section
where various scientific tests are conducted. The service
and the additional sections are not sealed. Compared with
the Russian spaceship, Shenzhou has a more roomy interior
and larger loading capacity. In addition, Shenzhou will
differ from Russian craft in its docking system. (China
Economic Times)
[November 30, 1999] Shenzhou Designer Steps to
Limelight Millions of people worldwide are now aware of
"Shenzhou" but few people have ever heard of Qi
Faren, the general designer of the craft. Qi, 66, was
graduated from the Beijing Institute of Aeronautics and
Astronautics in 1957, the year the Soviet Union sent the
Sputnik into orbit. Qi had participated in the research
and design of China's first satellite - the
Dongfanghong-1, which was successfully placed into orbit
in 1970. He was appointed the general designer of China's
spacecraft in 1992, During the ensuing seven years, Qi
directed and co-ordinated his thousand-strong team to
"make a breakthrough in China's manned space travel
technology." "We are now losing no time in
furthering our research. We plan to send humans into
space as soon as possible," he said. (China Daily)
[November 23, 1999] Shenzhou Returns Beijing The re-entry capsule of Shenzhou has returned
Beijing at 12:30 Beijing time today. The module was
carried back by a special train and has been delivered to
China Academy of Space Technoloy for examination and
analysis.
[November 23, 1999] Shenzhou Carries Simulated
Taikonaut Chinese media reveals that the first unmanned
Shenzhou launch did carry a "taikonaut"
onboard. This taikonaut is a simulation human model to
test the human engineering design of the spacecraft.
Reports did not mention whether Shenzhou was outfitted
with full life support system in this launch. Shenzhen
also carried scientific experiment equipment, various
plant seeds, flags of China and Macau, as well as stamps.
[November 23, 1999] Is Shenzhou A Copy of Soyuz? High-ranking Russian space officials confirmed
Monday that for the past decade China have contacted
various Russian rocket and space companies. In the
mid-1990s, China purchased a Soyuz descent module
(reentry capsule) from RKK Energia, as well as obsolete
rendezvous and docking hardware. The purchases were
arranged as private deals. The descent module supplied to
China contained the minimum of actual hardware, said the
Russian official. Avionics and other crucial systems were
just mock-ups. Nevertheless, the descent capsule
obviously helped Chinese engineers to choose the
configuration for their spacecraft, and to design a
landing system. "Since no commercial agreements were
reached, the Chinese just got bits and pieces, here and
there," the source said, "No doubt, they got
only fragments of information from Russia and had to do
bulk of the work themselves." (Space.com)
[November 21, 1999] More Details About the
Shenzhou Launch Chinese media revealed more details about the
Shenzhou filght today. China Central TV (CCTV) released
the video of the launch and launch preperation and a
computer rendered re-entry simulation. The video
confirmed the early photos of the CZ-2F launcher, the
launch pad and the VAB. The spacecraft is almost
identical to that of previously predicted. But the
animation did not show the anticipated second pair of
solar panels. The video does not include the landing but
newspaper reports have detailed description about the
"touching down". The re-entry command was sent
from Yuan Wang 3 that was located in south Atlantic
Ocean. According to reports, the parachute was released
at altitude of 30km. The touch down rocket was fired when
the vehicle was 1.5m above the ground. For the manned
mission, Chinese space official said it would be after
several times of unmmaned test.
[November
21, 1999] China Announces Successful "Shenzhou"
Launch Xinhua News Agency announces early morning that
China's first experimental spacecraft, part of the
country's manned space flight program, touched down in
the central Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in north
China at 3:41 a.m. (Beijing time) today, successfully
concluding the first flight of the system. The space
vehicle, named "Shenzhou" by President Jiang
Zemin, was launched with a new model of "Long
March" rocket at 6:30 a.m. (Beijing time) on
November 20 at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in
northwest China's Gansu Province.
[November 20, 1999] China Has Likely Launched The
Project 921 Vehicle There are rumors on the Internet that China has
launched its first unmanned manned spacecraft from
Jiuquan at 6:30am Beijing time (GMT 2230 Nov 19). It is
said that the spacecraft will return tomorrow and the
news would be released that time. This breaking news has
not been confirmed by any officail sources. However,
Phillip Clark, a noted UK space expert, reports that 4
Yuan Wang tracking ships have already been deployed
worldwide. The latest development is that the data from
NASA Goddard Center for 3 newly tracked objects
(catalogued as 1999-061) is consistent with a Jiuquan
launch at GMT 2230.
[November 20, 1999] China Offers India Launch
Opportunity China would launch India's Insat-3 satellites
for a lower price than Arianespace, Liu Zhixiong, vice
president of the China Great Wall Industry Corporation,
told the Press Trust of India Thursday. The offer would
likely be considered by India's government. More launch
options would give India greater flexibility when
arranging launch schedules, and possibly lower costs.
According to one Indian official, relations between the
two Asian countries' space programs have improved
recently. (Space.com)
[November 17, 1999] China to Launch the Unmanned
Spaceship Within Weeks China will be ready to launch its first unmanned
space ship before the end of the year, the Hong
Kong-based Wen Wei Po said Monday. The newspaper quoted
unidentified Beijing experts as saying the spacecraft
would be launched from the Jiuquan launch centre in Gansu
province by a Long March 2F rocket.
[November 17, 1999] ApStar 2R Renamed Loral Space & Communications announced that
its Loral Orion satellites have been renamed. The Apstar
2R is renamed as Telstar 10/Apstar IIR. The transponder
payload of Apstar 2R is leased by Loral Orion from APT
Satellite Company Ltd. for the life of the satellite. The
new names combine the Loral Orion satellites under a
single, well-recognized identity for Loral's growing
constellation of high-powered satellites, offering fixed
satellite services (FSS) communications coverage around
the world. (BUSINESS WIRE)
[November 8, 1999] New Space Center in Beijing China Space News, a Chinese space newspaper,
reported on Saturday that China has built a new,
large-scale space center in Beijing. Beijing Space
Technology Research and Test Center is located in
Tangjialing, northwest of Beijing, and occupies about 100
hectares in area. The center was broken ground in October
1994 and finished the Phase I construction in June 1998.
As the largest space center in China, it includes
spacecraft integration hangars, space environment and
vibration test facilities, and a series of laboratories.
Several satellites has been integrated and tested in the
center and will be followed by a number of larger and
more advanced spacecrafts. The report did not mention the
manned program but the new center is very likely the
rumored "space city" for the Project 921.
[November 5, 1999] China's Manned Program on
Schedule China confirmed the manned program again.
"The program is proceeding on schedule and we do not
see anything in the way. So long as the finances are in
place, we can launch at our convience". said Luo Ge,
Director General of Foreign Affairs of the China National
Space Administration (CNSA) at the International Space
Business Assembly in Washington D.C. When asked "Is
China's manned spacecraft based upon Russia's Soyuz
spacecraft?", Luo replied that "the spacecraft
was designed, developed, and produced by ourselves."
Luo did not give the detail or the timetable of the
manned program. (NASA Watch)