Following are records set by Shenzhou VI in China's history of space flight:
China's first multi-manned and multi-day spaceflight
After launching four unmanned spacecraft of the Shenzhou series since 1991, China conducted successful manned space flight in 21 hours and 23 minutes with the Shenzhou V, piloted by one astronaut Yang Liwei, in 2003. Now Shenzhou VI is the country's first multi-manned and multi-day spaceflight, which paves the way for Chinese astronauts to live and work in space station in future.
Firstly entering the orbital capsule
The move across the orbital and the re-entry capsules in spacecraft is the first of its kind undertaken by Chinese astronauts in space, and a significant breakthrough of China's space technology. The two astronauts closed and reopened the internal capsule door and made an airproof test on the door. The airproof function of the internal door between the orbital and the re-entry capsules is crucial for the safety of astronauts after the designed separation of the two capsules.
The first human-participated space scientific experiment program
The astronauts, Fei Junlong and Nie Haisheng, conducted a series of scientific experiments aboard Shenzhou VI, including observing and monitoring the Earth, the ocean pollution, the atmosphere, the vegetation, and making researches on biological and materials sciences.
Start of space lives in its real sense
The astronauts aboard Shenzhou VI could take on and off their space suits, eat heated food, drink unpolluted water that comes from 1,700-meters-deep underground, excrete in "space toilet", rest in sleep bags, shave, entertain themselves with turning somersaults, and make video recording of their anti-disturbance experiments. The taikonauts then began space lives in its real sense.
(Xinhua News Agency October 15, 2005)
