Shenzhou VI flight "after October holiday"

BEIJING, Sept. 12 -- China plans to launch its second manned space mission after the National Day holiday next month, AFP cited Beijing News as reporting.

The spacecraft Shenzhou VI will be launched, after the October 1-7 holiday, from the Jiuquan Space Launch Center in northwest China's Gansu province, using a Long March 2F rocket, the report said.

Different from the Shenzhou V, which was a solo flight that lasted 21 hours in October 2003, Shenzhou VI will carry two astronauts and stay in space for 119 hours, or five days.

Technical officials have arrived at the Jiuquan launching base, the report said.Enditem

Beijing - http://start.earthlink.net/article/top?guid=20051016/4351d040_3426_1335020051016127913930

China prepares for return of Shenzhou, says astronauts and spacecraft doing well
October 16, 2005 12:13 PM EDT
BEIJING - China prepared Sunday for the return of the Shenzhou 6 capsule and its two astronauts, rolling out a small army of rescue and medical workers, transport vehicles and equipment to greet the country's second manned space mission.
The vessel was scheduled for touchdown sometime early Monday morning, Xinhua News Agency said, quoting an unnamed official in charge of the space program. No other details were given.
The crew "changed back to white space suits and closed the door of the re-entry capsule" late Sunday, Xinhua said, citing the Beijing Aerospace Command and Control Center.
"The mission has accomplished the planned experiments and accumulated valuable technical data and experiences for the development of China's manned space program," Xinhua said.
"We feel good, our work is going smoothly and our life is happy," astronaut Fei Junlong was quoted as saying by Xinhua in a brief satellite hook-up Sunday evening. "We will do our utmost to fulfill the mission."
Officials set up the primary landing site at Siziwangqi in the grasslands of Inner Mongolia and a back-up site in Jiuquan in the Gobi Desert of China's northwest, where the capsule was launched on Wednesday.
Yang Guiming, a senior engineer at the Central Meteorological Observation Station, said the weather was expected to be ideal in the next two days at Siziwangqi.
"Visibility is high, winds will be low and there will be no rain," the official Xinhua News Agency cited Yang as saying.
China is only the third country to send humans into orbit on its own, after Russia and the United States - a source of tremendous national pride as the communist government tries to cement its status as a rising power and help prepare for a planned moon landing by 2010, as well as the eventual creation of a space station. Shenzhou means "divine vessel."
China Central Television said in its evening broadcast that everyone involved in the mission was "excitedly preparing for the return." It showed scientists huddling in groups over computers at Beijing's command center, as well as meteorologists monitoring the weather.
"We're grateful for the deep love and concern by all Chinese people, the Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan compatriots," astronaut Nie Haisheng said during the satellite hook-up.
Sui Qisheng, chief commander for systems at Siziwangqi, was quoted by Xinhua as saying that "all the systems are ready and standing by, all the equipment and communication systems are in good shape" for the landing.
Six helicopters, 14 special vehicles and more than 200 emergency rescue workers were waiting for the mission's return, Sui said.
Another team of vehicles and rescuers were at Jiuquan, Xinhua said.
CCTV showed footage of helicopters hovering in the air along with convoys of trucks speeding toward the landing sites and medical personnel with a red cross on their armbands running during practice drills.
Shenzhou 6 orbited around the earth dozens of times since blasting off five days ago and logged more than 3 million kilometers (1.86 million miles), Xinhua said.
During China's first manned mission in 2003, astronaut Yang Liwei orbited for 21 1/2 hours before his capsule landed by parachute.
The Beijing News said Nie and Fei will undergo 40 minutes of medical checkups after landing.
"After several days of flying in space, the astronauts may look wan and sallow, so medical staff will put makeup on them to make them look ruddy," the newspaper said.
They will each be taken to the local airport by helicopter before boarding a flight to Beijing, it said.
Both will be in isolation for observation for 14 days after the mission, but family members will be allowed to visit, the Beijing Youth Daily newspaper said.
Throughout the week, state media have played up the mission, breaking from the usual secrecy of the military-linked program by giving personal and sometimes lighthearted views of the astronauts. Newspapers have shown Fei turning somersaults in zero gravity on their front pages.
CCTV put together a musical montage of the astronauts' activities on Saturday - taking their blood pressure and reading books - along with photos they had taken of the vessel's solar panels.
The Beijing Youth Daily featured a photo of them transmitting the digital pictures to the command center. Both were wearing puffy blue jumpsuits and appeared to be squeezed in a small space filled with equipment and a tangle of wires.
CCTV said China will begin training women to be engineers on the space shuttle program at the start of next year. They will be drawn mostly from pilots in the country's air force. It showed women being examined by doctors and working on flight simulator programs on the computer.
On Saturday, President Hu Jintao wished Nie and Fei a "triumphant return" in an exchange shown live on national television.
He added: "The Chinese motherland and the people are proud of you!"

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