- Shenzhou 2
"Shenzhou 2" (Chinese: 神舟二号) launched on
January 9 ,2001 , was the second unmanned launch of theShenzhou spacecraft . Inside the reentry capsule were amonkey , adog and arabbit in a test of the spaceship'slife support systems. The reentry module separated from the rest of the spacecraft after just over seven days in orbit, with the orbital module staying in orbit for another 220 days."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 on12 January it once again changed its orbit to 329.3 by 339.4 km. A third orbit change came on15 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 agamma 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 SouthAtlantic Ocean off the coast ofSouth 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. TheSwedish 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 initiate reentry on
August 24 . It reentered over the westernPacific Ocean betweenEaster Island andChile .Mission parameters
*Mass: 7,400 kg
*Perigee: 330 km
*Apogee: 346 km
*Inclination: 42.6°
*Period: 91.3 minutes
*NSSDC ID: 2001-001Aee also
*
Animals in space
*Shenzhou spacecraft
*Long March rocket References
*cite news|url=http://www.space.com/news/spaceagencies/china_second_test_010102.html|title=China Readies Next Spaceship Test|publisher=Space.com|date=
2 January ,2001
*cite news|url=http://www.space.com/news/spaceagencies/shenzhou_update_010112.html|title="Shenzhou 2" Could Signal Chinese Manned Mission in 2002|publisher=Space.com|date=12 January ,2001
*cite news|url=http://www.space.com/news/shenzhou_reentry_010116.html|title=China Bid for Human Spaceflight Boosted by "Shenzhou 2" Landing |publisher=Space.com|date=16 January ,2001
*cite news|url=http://www.spacedaily.com/news/china-01m.html|title="Shenzhou 2" Returns While Orbital Experiments Continue|publisher=SpaceDaily|date=19 January ,2001
*cite news|url=http://www.spacedaily.com/news/china-01v.html|title=Confusion and Mystery of "Shenzhou 2" Mission Deepens|publisher=SpaceDaily|date=February 27 ,2001
*cite web | url=http://www.svengrahn.pp.se/histind/China12/sz2.html|title=The flight of "Shenzhou 2"|accessdaymonth=21 July |accessyear=2005
*cite web | url=http://www.sinodefence.com/space/manned/shenzhou2.asp|title="Shenzhou 2" Unmanned Spaceflight Mission|work=Chinese Defence Today|accessdaymonth=21 July |accessyear=2005External links
* [http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Launchpad/1921/shenzhou.htm Shenzhou images] from Go Taikonauts!
__NOTOC__
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
