Chinese Survey Ships Observing Unmanned Spacecraft

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, March 28, 2002

Chinese Survey Ships Observing Unmanned Spacecraft

Under the command of the Beijing Aerospace Direction and Control Center, the Xi'an Satellite Monitoring Center of China and four survey ships named "Yuanwang" stationed at the Pacific Ocean, Indian Ocean, and Atlantic Ocean, will track, survey and control the operations of the unmanned spacecraft"Shenzhou III" launched Monday.

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Four survey ships stationed on the high sea are observing and controlling the unmanned spacecraft "Shenzhou III" launched Monday.

China launched its third unmanned spacecraft, "Shenzhou III", at about 10:00 pm (Beijing time) Monday at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China's Gansu Province.

Under the command of the Beijing Aerospace Direction and Control Center, the Xi'an Satellite Monitoring Center of China andthe four survey ships named "Yuanwang" stationed at the Pacific Ocean, Indian Ocean, and Atlantic Ocean, will track, survey and control its operations.

Sources said that the "Yuanwang I" ship has successfully transmitted instructions to the spaceship after launching and the other three ships had also completed their tasks as scheduled.

Spacecraft in good shape

The unmanned spacecraf is in sound condition and flying normally on its pre-set orbit, space scientists from the Beijing Aerospace Directing and Controlling Centre said Wednesday.

And outer-space scientific and technological experiments are being carried out according to plan, said Sui Qisheng, director of the centre.

Experiments in space science have been successfully carried out on the spacecraft, which had orbited the Earth at least 30 times by Wednesday evening. Sui noted that feedback data states the craft's flying condition is very good.

The centre has sent a chain of telecommands to steer and operate the orbital module to make it complete several activities, such as adjusting the craft's direction in outer space, added Sui.

Dozens of space scientists work in the centre, paying close attention to the craft's responses via three-dimensional images and data displayed on a huge computer screen at the centre.

The internal environment of the spacecraft is the same as that of a manned spacecraft, and a simulated voice responding to the centre can be heard clearly, said Gu Sheng, a telecommunication expert of the centre.

The spaceship is circling the Earth once every 90 minutes. It is expected to fly in space for another couple of days before landing.

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