At 9 o'clock yesterday morning, "Yuanwang" No.2 survey ship, with a long screaming of siren, docked at the port for space survey ships. Thus all four "Yuanwang" survey ships have returned home after they successfully completed their survey and control mission over Shenzhou V manned spaceship.

　　Since September 8 this year, "Yuanwang" survey ships have been sent to the designated sea areas in the Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean and Indian Ocean to carry out survey and control missions for Shenzhou V, China's first manned spaceship. The four "Yuanwang" survey ships successfully sailed across the Taiwan Strait, Malacca Strait and Cape of Good Hope, covering about 60,000 nautical miles. During this period, crewmembers as well as scientific personnel on the ships overcame various difficulties and successfully completed the survey, remote measurement, remote control, earth-sky data and picture transmission and voice communication for Shenzhou V spaceship during the phases of operation, reentry and orbiting of Shenzhou V. The ships accurately sent 212 remote orders to the spaceship, which was an important contribution to the success of China's first manned space flight.

　　According to the experts, after going through five times of practical test of the space flight, the survey and control capabilities, the accuracy of survey and control, automation level and reliability of these survey ships have been remarkably improved and the overall survey and control technologies on the sea have been on a par with the world advanced level.

　　It is learned that, since its establishment, the "Yuanwang" survey fleet has sailed to the three major oceans for 44 times, covering a distance of over 800,000 nautical miles. So far the fleet has carried out more than 50 survey and control missions for space flight with a success rate of 100%.

　　Chi Wanchun, political commissar of the General Armaments Department of the PLA went to the port to meet the fleet on behalf of the PLA General Armaments Department and the Manned Space Flight Program Command Center.

　　By Liu Cheng and Fan Juwei

　　(December 15, PLA Daily)