INPE Supports Chinese Spacecraft

Hello reader!

It follows one communicates published on the day (11/01) in the website of the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) noting that the INPE supports Chinese Spacecraft.

Duda Falcão

INPE Supports Chinese Spacecraft

Tuesday, November 01, 2011

The station of the Brazilian National Institute for Space Research (Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais - INPE) in Alcântara, Maranhão, has been supporting the Chinese spacecraft Shenzhou-8 mission, launched latest Monday, Oct. 31. The CLTC (China Satellite Launch and Tracking Control) request CRC of INPE (Center for Satellite Tracking and Control) to monitor the Shenzhou-8 operations by Nov. 6.

"About two and a half hours after Shenzhou-8 launch, it passed for the first time over Alcantara station. All planned operations were perfectly executed," said Pawel Rozenfeld, head of CRC/INPE.

The Shenzhou-8 is an unmanned and recoverable spacecraft that will perform a rendezvous and docking experiment with Tiangong-1 spacecraft, in orbit for one month.

"Several tests have been performed this year, also training and testing between the Control Center of Xi'an and the Tracking and Control Station of Alcantara, as a preparation before launching Shenzhou-8," said Rozenfeld.

INPE and CLTC also have an agreement of supporting the mission Shenzhou-9 and Shenzhou-10 (one of them manned), in 2012.

CRC/INPE

The Center for Satellite Tracking and Control (CRC) is dedicated to manage INPE satellites operations in orbit, or joint satellite of INPE and foreign institutions. The center is also able to support third parties’ space missions. It consists of the Satellite Control Center (Centro de Controle de Satélite - CCS) in São José dos Campos (SP), the Earth Station of Cuiabá (MT), Earth Station of Alcântara (MA), and the communication network that connects them.

CRC/INPE keeps international partnership and serves on the further operation of French scientific satellite Corot at Alcântara station, while performing control and receipt of data from Brazilian satellite SCD-1 and 2, and is preparing to operate CBERS-3 (Sino-Brazilian) and Amazônia-1 (Brazilian).

Source: WebSite of the National Institute for Space Research (INPE)