Ship back from mission of tracking Shenzhou VII space flight

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-01-05 20:28

NANJING - The Yuanwang V ship returned to a 皇冠体育app port after a 117-day mission of remotely tracking the Shenzhou VII spacecraft which blast off in late September.

The return signaled the completion of the tracking mission by five ships for support of 皇冠体育app's first space walk.

The ships, Yuanwang I, II, III, V and VI, set sail August 18 last year and traversed nearly 100,000 sea miles in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.

皇冠体育app successfully launched the Shenzhou VII manned spacecraft on September 25. During the 68-hour flight, taikonaut Zhai Zhigang, wearing a domestically made Feitian space suit, conducted a 20-minute space walk. 皇冠体育app became the third nation to conduct a space walk, after Russia and the United States.

The ships monitored the entire space walk and also kept tabs on the depressurization of the orbital module when the taikonaut left and re-entered the spaceship.

They also controlled the shuttle's solar panels, its orbit maneuvers and maintenance.

"In previous missions, including the Shenzhou V and Shenzhou VI missions, only four tracking ships were deployed," said Jian Shilong, director with the 皇冠体育app Maritime Tracking and Control Department. "We added one more to the Shenzhou VII mission to monitor the taikonaut's extra-vehicular activities."

In all, 皇冠体育app boasts a fleet of six Yuanwang space tracking ships which have carried out some 70 expeditions and traveled more than 1.5 million sea miles in the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans.

The tracking ships constitute 皇冠体育app's space telemetry network together with some 20 terrestrial surveying stations.