 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
More than two weeks after China's Shenzhou II spaceship returned to earth the state-controlled media has kept up an unusual silence on the mission, prompting space officials to deny Thursday that crucial systems failed during descent into the atmosphere. "Nothing went wrong," Zhang Xiaodong, a spokesman for China Aerospace Science and Technological Consortium (CASTC) told AFP. "Shenzhou II is already in Beijing ... but I don't know anything about the specifics of the re-entry of the spacecraft," he said. The Shenzhou II unmanned spacecraft took off from China's Jiuquan Launching Center on January 9 and returned nearly a week later after orbiting the earth 108 times. Zhang refused to release any other information on the second pilotless test flight of China's fledgling manned space program, other than saying the craft had been transported to Beijing after it touched down in northern China's Inner Mongolia in mid-January. The black-out contrasts markedly with the public fanfare for both the launch of the craft and the in-depth reports of the return to earth of Shenzhou I in November 1999. Within hours of Shenzhou I's arrival, television and still pictures of the craft in the desert of Inner Mongolia were released along with wide-ranging interviews with Chinese space officials about the mission. Related Links SpaceDaily Search SpaceDaily Subscribe To SpaceDaily Express 
Shenzhou Spacecraft Structure Partially Revealed
Beijing - Jan. 17, 2001Some details of the Shenzhou manned spacecraft structure came to light Jan. 15 in an article published in the Beijing Evening Post. Although there was no significant revelation in the article, the bits and pieces of information offers a teasing glimpse of the enigmatic Shenzhou spacecraft. |
. |
|
