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DFFC

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First Launch: 2016-06-25. Last Launch: 2016-06-25. Number: 1 . Gross mass: 2,600 kg (5,700 lb).

Actual spacecraft configuration unknown since Chinese sources used modified drawing of the American Orion spacecraft from the Encyclopedia Astronautica to represent the capsule!

• DFFC - . Nation: China. Class: Technology. Type: Reentry test. Spacecraft: DFFC. COSPAR: 2016-042. Apogee: 382 km (237 mi). Perigee: 288 km (178 mi). Inclination: 40.80 deg.

  China inaugurated the Wenchang spaceport on Hainan Island on Jun 25 with the launch of the first Chang Zheng 7 rocket. The CZ-7 entered orbit with a YZ-1A upper stage, which made several burns to deploy small satellites and then was deorbited along with a subscale spacecraft reentry cabin to qualify systems for the next generation of Chinese human spaceflight missions. Four small satellites were ejected from the YZ-1A. Attached to the YZ-1A as a non-separable payload was the 'zai guijia zhu shiyan zhuangzhi', the In-Orbit Refeulling Experimental Device. The YZ-1A was deorbited over the Pacific after the experiment was completed; the stage had a design operation life of 48 hours. US tracking indicates the stage was deorbited on Jun 27 as expected. The primary payload was the DFFC (Duoyongtu Feichuan Fanhui Cang, multipurpose subscale spacecraft return capsule) flight test mission, which was to be recovered in China. There was also a ballast frame (pei zhong zhijia) which may be a dummy service module for the capsule. The capsule was deorbited on Jun 26 and landed in China at 0741 UTC. It was possible that the YZ-1A stage performed the deorbit and then separated to fire again immediately, regain orbit and continue operations for another day, but the details of what actually happened are not clear.