China's
Shenzhou 6 spacecraft fired its thrusters early Friday to boost the vehicle
back into its original orbit, Chinese state media reported.
The orbital
maneuver occurred at 5:56 a.m. Beijing Time as Shenzhou 6 made its 30th
swing around the Earth with astronauts Fei Junlong and Nie Haisheng onboard,
according the China's Xinhua News Agency. The astronauts have made more
than 36 orbits to date and traveled more than 932,056 miles (1.5 million
kilometers), the news agency added.
Mission
controllers at Beijing Aerospace Command and Control Center said Thursday that this
morning's orbital maneuver was required because Shenzhou 6 had deviated from
its planned 213-mile (343-kilometer) orbit around Earth, state media reported.
The
Shenzhou 6 astronauts - also known as taikonauts - are expected to spend up to
five days in orbit, though weather at their landing site in the Siziwang
Banner region of Inner Mongolia will likely determine the exact time of their
landing, Xinhua said.
"In the coming few days,
weather conditions at the primary landing area will be basically suitable for
the taikonauts to return," Li Yonghui, chief of the meteorological
team with the Shenzhou 6 satellite and manned spacecraft recovery troop, told Xinhua
Friday.
Earlier
Chinese press reports
postulated that Fei and Nie could return after three or four days of
spaceflight, but did not cite official sources.
Xinhua also cited Wu Guoting, a senior
researcher with the China Research Institute of Space Technology, as stating
that Shenzhou 6 could return "on, before, or after" the flight's fifth day.
Shenzhou 6
is loaded with enough food, water and oxygen for a seven-day flight, Wu told Xinhua.
Fei and Nie
are in their third day of spaceflight after launching
into orbit at 9:00 a.m. Oct. 12 Beijing Time (0100 GMT or 9:00 p.m. Oct. 11
EDT) on China's second manned mission and the country's first with two
astronauts aboard.
Shenzhou
5, China's first piloted launch, carried astronaut Yang
Liwei into orbit on Oct. 15, 2003. Yang spent 21 ½ hours in space and
orbited the Earth 14 times before landing safely.
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