China´s Shenzhou-7 manned spacecraft to pass six key tests for successful mission

Source: Xinhua | 09-25-2008 19:31

JIUQUAN, Gansu, Sept. 25 (Xinhua) -- China's Shenzhou-7 manned spacecraft and three astronauts on board will have to pass six key tests to fulfill their mission, said Zhou Jianping, the program's chief designer, here Thursday.

TEST 1: BLASTOFF

"For any manned space program, the possibility to come across deadly failures is larger during the launch," said Zhou at the Jiuquan satellite launch center of northwestern Gansu Province.

Although the Long-March II-F carrier rocket, to carry the spaceship, had succeeded in bringing six spacecraft to the outer space, a series of contingency plans were made to protect the safety of astronauts, he said.

The 100-meter-high launch tower is equipped with a slide to facilitate astronauts escape from the spaceship when an accident happens.

The control center is 1,500 away from the launch tower in a bid to reduce threat to the ground staff.

Eight contingency modes were designed for the spaceship during the ascent stage, four inside the atmosphere and the other four out of it.

"Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center is confident of a successful blastoff for it has successfully launched more than 100 satellites and spacecraft in the past five decades. We have the world's latest technologies and management," said Cui Jijun, the launch center director.

TEST 2: TRANSFER THE ORBIT

The Shenzhou-7 spaceship will transfer from an elliptic orbit to a circular one in its fifth circle around the earth. Whether it will succeed in this stage will be critical for the spaceship to fulfill all its tasks and land on the scheduled landing area in the timetable, said Zhou.

The spaceship will first travel on the elliptic orbit, 200 km away from the earth at the nearer point and 350 km at the farthest point, and it will transfer to the circular orbit 343 km away from the earth, to make its return trip easier.

Beijing Aerospace Control Center will take in charge of controlling the spaceship at this stage. "We are confident of fulfilling this task as we have performed well in the country's first moon probe mission," said Zhu Mincai, the center's director.