Chinese space centre finds jamming device weeks before launch
Staff at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in Inner Mongolia found the item in a car ahead of the launch of the shenzhou 14 mission it was not clear if there had been a deliberate attempt at sabotage or not
“The successful handling of this problem has provided a solid technical guarantee for the smooth implementation of subsequent space missions focusing on Shenzhou 14,” the article said.
The jammer could cause a rocket to go off-course, but the space centre did not say whether the discovery was a sabotage attempt or an accident.
A Long March-2F carrier rocket has already been transferred to the launch pad in the Gobi desert, the China Manned Space Agency said on Sunday.
The space centre, where all crewed missions are launched, detected unknown interference signals in early May, according to the report.
It took scientists and engineers at the centre several days to analyse and track the jamming signals, which went on and off repeatedly near the launch site, “frame by frame”.