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.