Shenzhou 2 () launched on January 9, 2001, was the second unmanned launch of the

Shenzhou spacecraft Shenzhou (, ; see ) is a spacecraft developed and operated by China to support its crewed spaceflight program, China Manned Space Program. Its design resembles the Russian Soyuz spacecraft, but it is larger in size. The first launch was on 19 ...

. Inside the reentry capsule were a monkey, a

dog The dog (''Canis familiaris'' or ''Canis lupus familiaris'') is a domesticated descendant of the wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it is derived from the extinct Pleistocene wolf, and the modern wolf is the dog's nearest living relative. Do ...

and a rabbit in a test of the spaceship's life support systems. The reentry module separated from the rest of the spacecraft after just over seven days in orbit, with the orbital module staying in orbit for another 220 days. Shenzhou 2 tested the spacecraft much more rigorously than its predecessor

Shenzhou 1 Shenzhou 1 () launched on 19 November 1999, was the first uncrewed launch of the Shenzhou spacecraft. The spacecraft used was not equipped with a life support system or an emergency escape system. After orbiting the Earth 14 times, the comman ...

. After being launched into a 196.5 by 333.8 km orbit, 20.5 hours after launch it circularised its orbit to 327.7 by 332.7 km. Around 1220 UTC on January 12 it once again changed its orbit to 329.3 by 339.4 km. A third orbit change came on January 15 328.7 by 345.4 km. As well as the animal cargo, there were 64 different scientific payloads. 15 were carried in the reentry module, 12 in the orbital module and 37 on the forward external pallet. These included a microgravity crystallography experiment; animal species including six mice, and small aquatic and terrestrial organisms;

cosmic ray Cosmic rays are high-energy particles or clusters of particles (primarily represented by protons or atomic nuclei) that move through space at nearly the speed of light. They originate from the Sun, from outside of the Solar System in our own ...

and particle detectors and a

gamma ray burst In gamma-ray astronomy, gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are immensely energetic explosions that have been observed in distant galaxies. They are the most energetic and luminous electromagnetic events since the Big Bang. Bursts can last from ten millise ...

detectors. To test the radio transmitting systems taped messages were broadcast from the spacecraft.

Successful reentry and failed landing

The signal for retrofire was sent at about 1015 UTC on January 16 as the spacecraft passed over the South Atlantic Ocean off the coast of South Africa. It landed in Inner Mongolia at 11:22 UTC. No photos were released of the landing capsule leading to some speculation that the reentry was not completely successful, though Chinese officials kept silent, only responded anomaly. The Swedish Space Center news site reported that an unnamed source said one of the connections from the capsule to the single parachute failed leading to a hard landing. Later in 2017, it was revealed by

Yang Liwei Yang Liwei (; born 21 June 1965) is a major general, former military pilot, and former taikonaut at the People's Liberation Army. In October 2003, Yang became the first person sent into space by the Chinese space program. This mission, Shen ...

that the parachutes failed to open upon re-entry, which resulted in hard-landing. Some of the cargo was slightly burned. The mission of the orbital module continued until it was commanded to fire its rockets to initiate reentry on August 24. It reentered over the western Pacific Ocean between

Easter Island Easter Island ( rap, Rapa Nui; es, Isla de Pascua) is an island and special territory of Chile in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeasternmost point of the Polynesian Triangle in Oceania. The island is most famous for its ne ...

and

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

Mission parameters

* Mass: 7,400 kg * Perigee: 330 km * Apogee: 346 km * Inclination: 42.6° * Period: 91.3 minutes * NSSDC ID: 2001-001A

References

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External links

Shenzhou images
from Go Taikonauts! {{Orbital launches in 2001 __NOTOC__ Shenzhou 02 2001 in China Spacecraft launched in 2001

Successful reentry and failed landing

Mission parameters

See also

References

External links