China's first recoverable experiment satellite, specially designed for scientific experiment, will be launched in the fall next year, according to China Academy of Sciences (CAS) on Sunday.

It is named as "2006 Recoverable Scientific Experiment Satellite''. With the exception of the re-entry module for the experiment of agricultural breeding the orbital module will be used as an experiment platform for nine microgravity experiments. It is the first time for China to use the orbital module as "space laboratory''.

The design project has been completed and started to put into practice.

In the past, Chinese recoverable satellite was mainly applied for ground observation and the "2006 Recoverable Scientific Experiment Satellite'' will be used mainly for scientific experiment, according to Hu Wenrui, chief architect of the sub-system of the satellite carrier system and academician with CAS. The re-entry module of the satellite will bring a batch of selected plant seeds to the space for receiving high-energy radiation and ion irradiation. After the seeds recovered research will be made on them in order to prove if there are any mutations and values for development and utility.

According to the introduction, the re-entry module of the "2006 Recoverable Scientific Experiment Satellite'' will be recovered after two-week stay in orbit. And the orbital module will continue to orbit the earth for experimental task until the drain of its electric sources. All the experimental data will be recorded by computers, which will be brought back to the ground by the re-entry module and transmitted directly to the ground from the space.

(People's Daily May 31, 2005)