Satellite part returns with a bang

Link : http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=857&ncid=757&e=10&u=/nm/20041017/od_uk_nm/oukoe_space_china_satellite


BEIJING (Reuters) - The retrievable chamber of China's 20th recoverable satellite returned to Earth with a bang, crashing through the roof of a house, the Beijing News says.



"The capsule returned back to Earth safely on Friday, but unfortunately it hit a four-storey civilian house," the newspaper said, showing a photograph of a house in Penglai in southwestern Sichuan province that looked as if it had been all but destroyed, with wooden rafters, bricks and tiles scattered around.


No one was injured.


The newspaper on Sunday gave no details but China regularly sends research satellites into orbit and last October became the third nation successfully to put a man in space when a single astronaut orbited the Earth 14 times.


In August, China launched a satellite that carried out land and mapping surveys for several days before returning to Earth.