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China announced the success of its first manned space flight
and the safe return of astronaut Yang Liwei after Shenzhou V
landed at the preset primary landing area at 06:23 (BJT) on
Thursday.
Following are some of the major facts and figures about
Shenzhou-5 spacecraft:
1. The spacecraft was 8.86 meters in total length, and weighed
7,790 kilograms;
2. Its re-entry module, with a diameter of 2.5 meters, has a
volume of six cubic meters;
3. Shenzhou-5 was equipped with 52 engines designed to ensure
precise readjustment of its attitude and flight maneuvers;
4. Fifty-five latest technologies were used for the first time
to build the Long March CZ-2F carrier rocket that sent
Shenzhou-5 into space;
5. The rocket had a liftoff mass of 479.8 tons, and the rocket
and the craft atop it measure 58.3 meters in height;
6. Shenzhou-5 flied a circular orbit 343 kilometers over the
Earth after the orbit shift;
7. It took about 90 minutes for Shenzhou-5 to make a single
circle round the Earth, and it stood the test of a temperature
gaps great as 180 degrees centigrade in orbit;
8. Nine land-based stations in China and abroad kept tracking
the spacecraft during its flight, and four large tracking ships
were deployed on the Pacific, the Atlantic and the Indian oceans
for the same purpose;
9. Lt. Col. Yang Liwei, China's first astronaut in space,
unfurled a national flag of China's and a United Nations flag,
both made of Nylon and of the same size: 15 cm long, 10 cm wide
and 10 grams in weight. Shenzhou-5 also carried a larger UN
flag, 180 cm plus 120 cm and weighing 330 grams, which was not
unfurled;
10. Shenzhou-5 flew round the Earth 14 times, in a space journey
of 600,000 kilometers;
11. Five helicopters and 14 special vehicles had stood by for
search and rescue before the spaceship landed;
12. The landing of Shenzhou-5 is just 4.8 kilometers off the
target.
Shenzhou-5, is the largest of its kind in the world
The spaceship, consisting of a propulsion module, a re-entry
module, an orbiter and an additional module, is large enough for
three astronauts, Yuan Jiajun, a leading senior engineer in
charge of the spaceship system under China's space program, said
on Thursday.
The re-entry module of the spacecraft measures 2.5 meters in
diameter, larger than the first spaceships launched by the
former Soviet Union and the United States, which were designed
to accommodate only one cosmonaut. Shenzhou-5, weighing 7,790
kilograms, is also heavier.
"Multi-adaptability of the orbiter has made our future space
projects possible," said Yuan, adding that Chinese experts are
focusing on the docking technology for moving objects in space.
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