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Capsule tracked from the Atlantic

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CHINA'S aerospace survey ship made an historic Atlantic voyage to monitor the unmanned spacecraft flight two weeks ago.

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Xinhua said the ship, Yuanwang 3, left Cape Town and sailed through the rough waters off the Cape of Good Hope on Thursday.

The agency quoted technical experts as saying the ship's success in the Atlantic signified China's aerospace fleet had extended operations from the Pacific to the Indian and Atlantic oceans.

'The four ships in our fleet used to operate only in the Pacific Ocean,' the experts at the China Marine Satellite Monitoring and Control Department said.

'The successful extension into the Atlantic means we are ready to make complex aerospace [monitoring] missions in remote waters.' Xinhua said Yuanwang 3 was equipped with advanced data-gathering and weather systems and high-precision electronic oceanographic charts, which were especially made for the mission.

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The Shenzhou spacecraft was launched on November 20 and orbited the earth 14 times before returning.

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