Shenzhou 2
Encyclopedia : S : SH : SHE : Shenzhou 2
| Mission statistics | |
|---|---|
| Mission name: | Shenzhou 2 |
| Launch: | January 9, 2001 01:00 UTC Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center |
| Landing: | January 16, 2001 11:22 UTC Inner Mongolia |
| Duration: | 7 days 10 hours 22 minutes |
| Orbits: | 117 |
Shenzhou 2 tested the spacecraft much more rigorously than its predecessor Shenzhou 1. After being launched into a 196.5 by 333.8 km orbit, 20.5 hours after launch it circularised its orbit to 327.7 by 332.7 km. Around 1220 UTC on 12 January it once again changed its orbit to 329.3 by 339.4 km. A third orbit change came on 15 January 328.7 by 345.4 km.
As well as the animal cargo, there were 64 different scientific payloads. 15 were carried in the reentry module, 12 in the orbital module and 37 on the forward external pallet. These included a microgravity crystallography experiment; animal species including six mice, and small aquatic and terrestrial organisms; cosmic ray and particle detectors and a gamma ray burst detectors. To test the radio transmitting systems taped messages were broadcast from the spacecraft.
The signal for retrofire was sent at about 1015 UTC on 16 January as the spacecraft passed over the South Atlantic Ocean off the coast of South Africa. It landed in Inner Mongolia at 11:22 UTC. No photos were released of the landing capsule leading to some speculation that the reentry was not completely successful, though this was denied by Chinese officials. The Swedish Space Center news site reported that an unnamed source said one of the connections from the capsule to the single parachute failed leading to a hard landing.
The mission of the orbital module continued until it was commanded to fire its rockets to iniate reentry on August 24. It reentred about over the western Pacific Ocean between Easter Island and Chile.
Mission parameters
- Mass: 7,400 kg
- Perigee: 330 km
- Apogee: 346 km
- Inclination: 42.6°
- Period: 91.3 minutes
- NSSDC ID: 2001-001A
See also
References
External links
- [Shenzhou images] from Go Taikonauts!
| Shenzhou (神舟) |
| |
| Previous mission: Shenzhou 1 | Next mission: Shenzhou 3 | |
| Unmanned: Shenzhou 1 | Shenzhou 2 | Shenzhou 3 | Shenzhou 4 | ||
| Manned: Shenzhou 5 | Shenzhou 6 | ||
| Planned: Shenzhou 7 | Shenzhou 8 |Shenzhou 9 |Shenzhou 10 | ||
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.