Astronauts to be home in time for breakfast
Source: Xinhua |
June 26, 2013, Wednesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
CHINA'S Shenzhou-10 spacecraft will return to Earth at about 8am today as scheduled, with its main landing site set for north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.
According to sources at the site, weather conditions during the spacecraft's return are expected to meet landing requirements.
Various facilities at the site are currently operating well and are capable of performing search and recovery work after the landing, the sources said, adding that the plan has been repeatedly optimized based on multiple drills since mid-May.
The crew aboard China's Shenzhou-10 spacecraft - Nie Haisheng, Zhang Xiaoguang and Wang Yaping - yesterday completed the final part of their mission when they manually separated from and docked with the Tiangong-1 space module.
The exercise, never attempted before, meant manually detaching their craft from the module and flying around it before returning to rendezvous again.
Following separation from Tiangong-1 at 7:05am, the crew piloted Shenzhou-10 back to a point where the spacecraft changed orbit and flew around the target module.
Under the command of ground-based staff, Shenzhou-10 adjusted its flight at a point behind Tiangong-1, and approached and rendezvoused with the module once more.
The success was another step toward China's goal of building a permanent, manned space station by 2020.
Tiangong-1 has been orbiting Earth since September 29, 2011.
According to sources at the site, weather conditions during the spacecraft's return are expected to meet landing requirements.
Various facilities at the site are currently operating well and are capable of performing search and recovery work after the landing, the sources said, adding that the plan has been repeatedly optimized based on multiple drills since mid-May.
The crew aboard China's Shenzhou-10 spacecraft - Nie Haisheng, Zhang Xiaoguang and Wang Yaping - yesterday completed the final part of their mission when they manually separated from and docked with the Tiangong-1 space module.
The exercise, never attempted before, meant manually detaching their craft from the module and flying around it before returning to rendezvous again.
Following separation from Tiangong-1 at 7:05am, the crew piloted Shenzhou-10 back to a point where the spacecraft changed orbit and flew around the target module.
Under the command of ground-based staff, Shenzhou-10 adjusted its flight at a point behind Tiangong-1, and approached and rendezvoused with the module once more.
The success was another step toward China's goal of building a permanent, manned space station by 2020.
Tiangong-1 has been orbiting Earth since September 29, 2011.
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