© 1999 Macmillan Magazines Ltd

news

336 NATURE | VOL 402 | 25 NOVEMBER 1999| www.nature.com

Reports about the launch covered the frontpages of almost all major newspapers.

Russia is reported to have helped Chinawith the development programme. Thespacecraft weighed about 8.4 tonnes and wascapable of accommodating up to four astro-nauts. It was said to be based on the RussianSoyuz, but with two pairs of solar panels togenerate power, and a cylindrical forwardmodule rather than a spherical one.

Moscow and Beijing signed an agree-ment to train Chinese cosmonauts in Russiaafter Russian president Boris Yeltsin visitedChina in 1996.

Two Chinese cosmonauts received train-ing that year at the Star City Space Centrenear Moscow in the full programme neededfor a manned flight, as well as intensivecourses in physics and Russian. The futureastronauts are said to have been picked fromamong China’s best fighter pilots.

China launched its first rocket in 1959.The country’s first satellite, Dongfanghong,went into orbit in 1970. Tian Xuewen

BeijingChina has launched its first unmannedspacecraft, Shenzhou, or “God Ship”. Theflight has made China the third country tolaunch a craft capable of carrying a personinto space, and has been hailed as a mile-stone towards realizing that dream.

The vehicle was launched with the latestmodel of the Long March rocket, from theJiuquan satellite-launching centre in thenorthwestern province of Gansu, at 6:30 a.m.local time on Saturday (20 November). Thedome-shaped craft was in space for 21 hoursand orbited the Earth 14 times before touch-ing down in Inner Mongolia.

During the mission, experiments wereconducted on remote sensing from space,environmental monitoring, space materials,life science, astronomy and physics. A newland- and sea-based monitoring and controlnetwork was put into use for the first time forthe launch.

China’s secret Manned Spaceflight Pro-gramme began in 1992. The first manned

flight was originally planned to coincidewith the fiftieth anniversary of the foundingof the People’s Republic of China in October— no reasons were given for the delay.

The spacecraft and the carrier rocket weredeveloped mainly by the China Space Sci-ence and Technology Group. The ChineseAcademy of Sciences and the Ministry of theInformation Industry were also involved.

The official Xinhua News Agency said thelaunch would “strengthen the nation’s com-prehensive national strength, promote thedevelopment of science and technology,enhance national prestige and boost thenation’s sense of pride and cohesiveness”.

Officials say that a number of unmannedtest flights are needed before an astronautcan be sent into space, but give no timetable.The Beijing-backed Hong Kong newspaperWen Wei Po said a manned flight was “justaround the corner”, however.

Major Chinese newspapers did notappear until midday on Sunday, apparentlywaiting for the return of the spacecraft.

China on verge of putting man into space…

TokyoJapan’s space programme experienced amajor setback last week when one of its H-IIrockets had to be destroyed shortly after lift-off. An engine failure caused the launcher todeviate from its flight path.

The failure led to the resignation ofToshio Okazaki, vice-minister for theScience and Technology Agency (STA), whoalso took responsibility for the nuclear fuelaccident at a uranium-reprocessing plant inTokaimura in September. But hisresignation fuelled criticism of thegovernment for creating a scapegoat formishaps at STA-related organizations.

The launcher carrying the Multi-functional Transport Satellite (MTSAT) wasblown up seven minutes after its launch, onthe instructions of the National SpaceDevelopment Agency (NASDA). Agencyofficials say that the engine on the first stageof the launcher stopped working about fourminutes after the launch, possibly becauseof a problem with the fuel pipe supplyinghydrogen to the combustion chamber.

The failure, resulting in a total loss of¥34.3 billion (US$327 million), was a blowto NASDA and its governing body, the STA,which had hoped to improve the spaceagency’s reputation following last year’sfailure to launch the world’s largesttelecommunications satellite (see Nature392, 321; 1998).

Three delays to the launch of the H-II

rocket, initially planned for August, addedinsult to injury (see Nature 401, 204; 1999).NASDA admitted after the accident that itdid not inspect the main engine thoroughly,because the same type of engine had workedin past missions.

Hirofumi Nakasone, director-general ofSTA, has promised a full investigation intothe failure and a review of spacedevelopment strategy under NASDA. “Thisdoes not mean that [Japan’s] whole spacedevelopment strategy has a problem, but thecurrent system under NASDA clearly needsto be reviewed and made open to thepublic,” said Nakasone.

Politicians from the ruling LiberalDemocratic Party called for a drasticreorganization of the country’s spaceprogramme after last year’s launch failure.This view has strengthened after last week’sincident, with a greater emphasis onreorganizing NASDA. This would includemerging NASDA with the Institute of Spaceand Astronautical Science (ISAS) under theMinistry of Education, Science, Sports andCulture (Monbusho) after the plannedmerger of STA and Monbusho in 2001.

But space scientists are opposed to such amove, saying that a merger of NASDA,which is responsible for large-scale,mission-orientated programmes, and ISAS,an institute focusing on basic research,would be disastrous.

“The merger will not make the problems

disappear,” says Ryojiro Akiba, formerdirector of ISAS and a member of STA’sSpace Activities Commission. “NASDA mayhave to shift from its current application-orientated approach to a more technology-and research-based approach, and ISAScould provide support for such a move; butthis should not be interpreted as a need tomerge the two organizations.”

The failure is also a serious blow toJapan’s plan to join the satellite business.Rocket System, a commercial satellite-launching company funded by 73 space-related companies, says the failure mayaffect its contract with two US companies tolaunch satellites using H-IIA rockets, whichare based on H-II launchers. Asako Saegusa

Ill-fated: the H-II launcher was blown up sevenminutes after its successful lift-off (above).

... as a new failed satellite launch embarrasses Japan

NA

SDA