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Helicopter carries the
return capsule off the ground inSuining,Southwest Sichuan Province on Septr 24,
2006.
Chinas seed-breeding satellite, Shijian-8, successfully
landedinSichuan Province at 10:43 am Beijing time yesterday after a15-dayflight
in space.
The recoverable satellite was launched from the
JiuquanSatelliteLaunch Centre in Northwest China on Septr 9. Thesatellites
returncapsule was recovered in Suining, SichuanProvince. The orbitalmodule will
continue to orbit the earth andcarry out moreexperiments until its battery runs
out.
The satellite carried 215 kilograms of seeds ofvegetables,fruits,
grains and cotton, the largest load of this kindsince1987.
Scientists
from the Space-breeding Centre of the ChineseAcademyof Agricultural Science used
the mission to carry outexperimentsaimed at discovering what happens to the
germination andsproutingof plants when they are exposed to zero
gravity.
After being exposed to cosmic radiation and zero
gravity,someseeds may mutate and produce higher yields and improvedqualitywhen
planted back on earth, scientists said.
During its flight, the
satellite sent back high-definitiondigitalimages of sprouting vegetables,
according to the Instituteof PlantPhysiology & Ecology with the Shanghai
Institute forBiologicalSciences under the Chinese Academy of
Sciences.
An official from the Ministry of Agriculture said
theministrywill ask research institutes to use the seeds returned fromspaceto
develop new strands featuring high yields, good quality
andhighefficiency.
Since 1987, China has carried out seed breeding
tests onninesatellites.
The Shijian-8 is the 90th space flight made by
Long Marchrocketsand the 23rd time China has launched a recoverablesatellite.
Chinahas chalked up 48 successful space launches in arow since October1996.
(China
Daily)
在经过15天的太空飞行后，我国实践八号育种卫星于北京时间9月24日10时43分在四川省境内成功着陆。
实践八号可回收育种卫星9月9日在我国西北部的九泉卫星发射中心发射升空。
实践八号卫星返回舱在四川省遂宁县落地回收。卫星留轨舱在电池耗尽之前，还将在轨运行一段时间，继续进行一些科学实验任务。
实践八号卫星共搭载了215公斤蔬菜、水果、谷物和棉花种子上天，是1987年以来搭载种子量最多的一次。
中国农业科学院太空育种中心的科学家们希望通过实践八号所做的科学实验探测失重对种子发芽产生的影响。
科学家介绍，在宇宙辐射和失重环境下，有些种子可能会发生变异，这些变异种种植到地球上后，能培育出高产优质的新品种。
据中科院上海生命科学植物生理生态研究所介绍，实践八号在飞行过程中传回了一系列高清晰的青菜太空发芽的照片。
农业部的一位官员说，农业部将要求有关研究机构把从太空回来的种子培育成高产、优质、高效的新品种作物。
从1987年起，中国相继进行了九次太空育种实验。
实践8号育种卫星是中国发射的第23颗可回收卫星，这次发射也是长征系列运载火箭的第90次飞行。自1996年10月以来，我国已连续第48次取得太空发射成功。Vocabulary:
zero
gravity
: 失重状态（失去地球引力的条件下）（编辑：赵露） | |
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