The landing of China's first manned spacecraft following a 21-hour orbiting will go on in favorable climatic conditions early Thursday, experts predicted.
According to the local meteorological station at the priority landing site in Inner Mongolia, north China, the weather will be clear with good vision throughout Thursday.
It will be clear to cloudy, with temperatures between minus four and eight Celsius degrees. The wind speed will be four to six meters per second, and visibility will be over 10 kilometers, according to Wang Yongsheng, director of the meteorological station.
Wang explained that the landing requires a wind speed limit of less than 10 meters per second at low altitude of 300 meters or lower and less than 70 meters per second in the upper atmosphere, no clouds at altitude lower than 1,000 meters and no rainfall or snow, and visibility of no less than 10 kilometers.
The weather conditions over the landing site will meet all the requirements for the return of the re-entry module of Shenzhou V spacecraft, Wang added.
(Xinhua News Agency October 15, 2003)
