BEIJING, Oct. 13 (Xinhuanet) -- With a lot of modifications and
improvements in the series of Shenzhou spacecraft capsules, Shenzhou-8 is
expected to become a relatively fixed version of China-made space vessels, said
Zhang Bainan, chief designer of China's spacecraft system.
According to Zhang, China has been making improvements from Shenzhou-1 to
Shenzhou-6 spaceships. Every capsule has new technological features, to make the
spacecraft perfect.
The design of Shenzhou series has avoided the defects of Russia's Soyuz
vessel from the beginning and adopted more advanced technology. In addition,
quite a number of ground experiments have been conducted from Shenzhou-1 to
Shenzhou-6 to test every detail of the capsules.
As long as a final design is worked out, basic craft elements such as the
shape, internal structure, control service system and data transmission will be
fixed, but minor modifications may be necessary for different missions, the
designer said.