Landing system ready to greet Shenzhou VI astronauts
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-10-16 09:32

SIZIWANG BANNER, Inner Mongolia - China has successfully conducted five drills of Shenzhou VI's landing system to get well prepared for the spacecraft's recovery, experts told a mobilization rally here Saturday.

Li Dongheng, commander of search and rescue mission, said the spacecraft will return to the primary landing area in Siziwang Banner (county) of north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region as designated, urging all the searchers and rescuers to get ready to fulfill mission.

Sui Qisheng, commander-in-chief of the landing system, told Xinhua that all concerned systems and equipments works well so far, and five drills have been conducted to improve the searching speedand efficiency so as to find out the re-entry capsule and provide the astronauts with necessary rescue as soon as Shenzhou VI lands.

According to weather forecast, the primary landing area will enjoy fair weather condition in next few days, which can meet the requirements for the spacecraft to return and land.

The landing system of China's manned spaceflight programme is the third one in the world after the United States and Russia, said Hou Ying, chief designer of landing system.

The landing system is composed of the main landing field, the standby landing field, and a number of other emergency landing sites, which are equipped with advanced radio measuring systems tohelp monitor the movements of the return capsule.

Since China decided to begin its manned spaceflight programme in 1990s, the country has managed to resolve problems in setting up its own search and rescue system, Hou said.

"China's landing system of spacecraft has been improved gradually and made remarkable achievements with the successful space flight of previous five Shenzhou series," Hou added.