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| China-Japan-Koreas | |
| China's spacecraft orbit 'slips' | |
| 2005-10-14 | |
| EFL - HT to Drudge - RTWT China's Shenzhou VI spacecraft is not orbiting exactly as planned and will have to be restored to its original trajectory, state-run media say. The "orbit maintenance operation" would take place early on Friday morning, said official news agency Xinhua. or not Gravity has drawn Shenzhou VI too close to earth, the agency said. Shenzhou VI, which has two astronauts on board, is in a low enough orbit to be affected by the Earth's gravitational pull.
Xinhua quoted experts as saying the procedure to fix craft's orbit would be a "normal technical operation". sorry muchachos! Nonetheless, the agency said, experts were urging all scientific and technological staff to be "cautious". Everything was functioning well aboard Shenzhou VI and it had orbited the earth 23 times by Thursday evening, according to Xinhua. Astronauts Fei Junlong and Nie Haisheng, who is marking his 41st birthday on Thursday, were reportedly in good health. | |
| Posted by:Frank G |
| #12 Just realise, if this was a NASA craft slipping orbit all the worlds media would be bitching about how awful this is but when the chinks fck up no-one even wants to report it. |
| Posted by: Shep UK 2005-10-14 14:11 |
| #11 i personally would like to see it burn up in the atmosphere - yeah not to friendly i know but i do not like the thought of chi-coms buzzing around over my house high in the sky, next thing you know we'll have them flogging thier shitty rockets to pakiland and iran and then space will be full of seething islamofacists. give it 30 years and we'll have suicide spacecraft attacking our countries, oh and Nork space craft cant be far behind either if China feels it'd be fun to piss us all off with. |
| Posted by: Shep UK 2005-10-14 14:09 |
| #10 Speaking of orbital mechanics, if they do a burn to put on positive delta-V, the go into a higher orbit and, counter-intuitively, slow down. |
| Posted by: mojo 2005-10-14 13:27 |
| #9 ...but at least they can change their underwear once during the 5-day flight (HT Drudge) |
| Posted by: BigEd 2005-10-14 12:05 |
| #8 Nonetheless, the agency said, experts were urging all scientific and technological staff to be "cautious". Thank God for experts. |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2005-10-14 07:31 |
| #7 It's not like this is rocket science...oh...wait...never mind. |
| Posted by: Angaimble Gravish2306 2005-10-14 07:17 |
| #6 Someone screwed up the math and got them into a poor orbital attitude. Stuff happens. |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet O´ Doom 2005-10-14 05:08 |
| #5 Just a couple more decimal places and... |
| Posted by: .com 2005-10-14 03:50 |
| #4 Various Net reports also refer to the still unexplained "physical condition" of the two Taikonauts. Those guys should be called Shanghai-nauts. I always associate "Taiko" with the drummers that practiced next door where I grew up. |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2005-10-14 01:18 |
| #3 Gravity has drawn Shenzhou VI too close to earth, the agency said. Shenzhou VI, which has two astronauts on board, is in a low enough orbit to be affected by the Earth's gravitational pull. damn gravity, it's pulling on my roof over the tool shed. Must be some kind of strange orbital mechanics going on. /fault>Bush |
| Posted by: Red Dog 2005-10-14 01:15 |
| #2 Various Net reports also refer to the still unexplained "physical condition" of the two Taikonauts. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2005-10-14 00:48 |
| #1 Since it's not going anywhere but eventually back to Earth, I'd guess that they're just making a minute adjustment in the orbit so the re-entry track will be in the right place when they want to return. |
| Posted by: Phil Fraering 2005-10-14 00:21 |