Orbital Analysis of the Shenzhou-6 Manned Mission in Support of the Malindi Tracking Station

This report presents an analysis of the orbital, re-entry and ground coverage aspects of the second Chinese manned mission, Shenzhou-6, carried out on October 2005. The flight was supported by the Malindi tracking station, in Kenya, managed by the Italian Space Agency (ASI). Before and during the mission, the Spaceflight Dynamics Laboratory of ISTI/CNR provided the ASI personnel in Malindi with trajectory and maneuver analysis, flight monitoring, tracking passes predictions and re-entry events sequence, reconstructed with in-house simulations. The outputs, when applicable, were compared with the data provided by the Chinese, for consistency checks. The Malindi ground station played an important role in the Shenzhou-6 flight, as was in the case of the first manned mission, Shenzhou-5, on October 2003, when the Chinese inaugurated its use. Due to its critical geographical position, in fact, Malindi neatly integrated the existing network of ground stations and tracking ships, covering also a critical portion of the re-entry phase.