 | This article includes a list of references, related reading, or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. (December 2010) |
| Mission type | Test flight |
|---|---|
| COSPAR ID | 2001-001A |
| SATCAT no. | 26664 |
| Mission duration | 7 days 10 hours 22 minutes |
| Orbits completed | 117 |
| Spacecraft properties | |
| Spacecraft type | Shenzhou |
| Launch mass | 7,400 kilograms (16,300 lb) |
| Start of mission | |
| Launch date | January 9, 2001, 17:00:03.561 UTC |
| Rocket | Chang Zheng 2F |
| Launch site | Jiuquan LA-4/SLS-1 |
| End of mission | |
| Landing date | January 16, 2001, 11:22 UTC |
| Landing site | Inner Mongolia[vague] |
| Orbital parameters | |
| Reference system | Geocentric |
| Regime | Low Earth |
| Eccentricity | 0.00119 |
| Perigee altitude | 330 kilometres (210 mi) |
| Apogee altitude | 346 kilometres (215 mi) |
| Inclination | 42.6 degrees |
| Period | 91.3 minutes |
| Epoch | 8 January 2001, 20:00:00 UTC[1] |
Shenzhou missions | |
Shenzhou 2 (Chinese: 神舟二号) launched on January 9, 2001, was the second unmanned launch of the Shenzhou spacecraft. Inside the reentry capsule were a monkey, a dog 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. 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 and particle detectors and a gamma ray burst detectors. To test the radio transmitting systems taped messages were broadcast from the spacecraft.
- ^ "NASA - NSSDCA - Spacecraft - Trajectory Details". nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov. Retrieved 2018-05-02.