Shenzhou 2

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Shenzhou 2

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 (2001-01-09UTC17:00:03Z) UTC
Rocket	Chang Zheng 2F
Launch site	Jiuquan LA-4/SLS-1
End of mission
Landing date	January 16, 2001, 11:22 (2001-01-16UTC11:23Z) 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 1 Shenzhou 3 →

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.