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A Chinese Rocket Test... And An U.F.O. DVDs Now Available At Project P.R.O.V.E.!

The roots of the Chinese Manned Space Program go all the way back to 1966, only five years after the first Soviet and American space flights. At that time, Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong authorized studies into the cost and practicality of such a venture. In 1970, China launched its first satellite into Earth orbit. At this time, Chairman Mao ordered a real effort to develop, and orbit, a manned spacecraft. Work commenced, but the program was scrapped after Mao's death in 1976. It was replaced with a much more modest program concerned with communication, and military unmanned satellites. The idea of a manned space program in China was revived in 1986. Calls went out across the spectrum of the Chinese space industry and academecia to submit proposals for ideas which could develop into a manned space program. Many ideas were offered, but ultimately the seeds were sown for the Shenzhou (Divine Vessel) program with the launching of Project 921 in 1992. The new spacecraft was loosely modeled after the Russian/Soviet Soyuz vehicle, workhorse of the Russian space program today. Project 921 called for three unmanned test flights, with an eye to the first manned launch in 2002. Work progressed throughout the 1990s, and into the early years of the 21st Century. The manned rated booster to be used was the CZ-2F rocket, based on the successful satellite launcher, the CZ-2E "Long March". After years in the testing phase, the first Chinese manned spacecraft, Shenzhou V was launched from Jiuquan Launch Centre without trouble on 15 October 2003. Taikonaut Lt. Yang Liwei spent nearly a day in orbit, returning safely to Earth in the Chinese interior on 16 October 2003. More on the Shenzhou vehicle: Reference 1 - Reference 2 - Reverence 3 - Reference 4 - Reference 5 Main Source For History of Chinese Space Program Best Website For Information On The Chinese Space Program: "Go Taikonauts"
	Beijing Control

	Shenzhou Launch

	On Orbit

	Landing Retros

	Capsule On Ground

THE EVENT

The picture at left was acquired from the website "Go Taikonauts!" in January 2001. I am unable to find this picture on that website today (January 2006). It was originally released by the Xinhua News Agency of China, and is an official Chinese Government photograph. There was no explanation caption associated with the picture. It was presented with a variety of official photos of the Chinese Manned Space Program.

This photo shows a test of the escape tower on what is probably the Shenzhou-1 space craft, using a dummy capsule, most likely taking place sometime in 1999. The three small rockets, seen here firing at the very top of the escape tower, make it possible to separate the manned capsule from the booster, whilst in flight, in case of an emergency.

There is an unusual bell shaped object in the picture as well. This object does not appear to coincide with any part of the test rocket.

Note the resemblence to the two bell shaped objects captured during the flight of STS-101 in May 2000, and the flight of STS-92 in October that same year. These are the small photo insets provided for your comparison.

This close-up of the Shenzou vehicle on the launch pad, makes a good comparison with the photo on the left to illustrate how the escape tower works.

On the left, you can see the small rockets firing to lift the entire spacecraft, still inside its liftoff shroud. On the right, we have a pretty good view of those same rockets, the escape tower, and the liftoff shroud.


	This appears to be a pretest photo of the same rocket as seen above. Note that it is only the Shenzhou vehicle with shroud and escape tower, and nothing else. There is NOTHING bell shaped and metallic looking in this picture.

	The picture at left is a close up of the escape tower rockets. These are the rocket motors which lifted the spacecraft hundreds of feet/meters into the air in the first photograph. These rockets are quite powerful, but have a very short firing time. They burn out quickly, and last only long enough to carry the manned capsule a safe distance from the booster in an emergency.

	This comparison shows the Shenzou capsule on it's parachute. It has been suggested that the object seen in the test photo was merely a capsule on a 'chute. As can be seen, the shapes are very similar. In the original photo, there is plainly no parachute deployed. And one can see that the shroud over the capsule on the booster is still in place, so the capsule is still attached to the rocket.. The anomalous object is NOT the descent capsule, no matter how hard the debunkers try to say it is.

At left is a 300% enlargement of the object seen during the test. If you look closely at the original photo, you will hopefully note that there are no parts missing from the rocket as it soars into the heavens. This object does not correspond to any part of the rocket itself. After five years, it remains unexplained. It is also unknown whether the white dots above and below the object are photographic flaws, or other objects in the sky that day.

Here we have another 300% enlargement. This object was seen during the STS-101 spacewalk of 21 May 2000. That was just a few months after the test of the Shenzhou rocket. (More on STS-101 HERE)

Because of the fact that this is a digital copy from a television frame, you can see that pixilation has set in. But, it's the best we can do under the circumstances. This frame was captured from the original VHS recording I made of the STS-101 flight at the time.


	At left in this 300% enlargement, we see an object which made a brief appearance during the undocking of STS-101...also in May 2001.

It has been over five years since this case came to my attention. In all that time, nothing has surfaced in the way of a conventional explanation for the anomaly. After a careful review of all the relevant facts, I must classify this object as unknown.

At the end of the day, it's up to YOU to draw your own conclusions.