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Immediately after launch it appeared that the satellite would be lost due to a loss of pressure of the gas orientation system. Qian Huesen believed the chance of a successful recovery was nil. However Yang Jiachi calculated that the pressure loss was simply due to heating of the spacecraft during ascent followed by the cooling in space. He believed a full-duration mission was possible. Nevertheless the decision was taken to bring down the spacecraft early, after three days of flight.
Observers were deployed to the tops of 3400 m mountains to observe the descent of the capsule in Sichuan. The recovery force awaited orders. However the satellite was not seen. After some study the scientists determined that it probably landed on Chinese soil, in Guizhou.
Meanwhile, at noon in Guizhou four coal miners were sitting in the mess hall when a red-hot ball was seen to fall from the sky and crash into a grove of trees. With great apprehension they ventured out to find a blackened hulk in a pit. Finally one threw a stone at the object, which bounced off with a metallic ding. Glad to find the thing to be of human artifice, the miners reported the matter to the authorities. The recovery force eventually arrived and found the interior of the spacecraft intact - usable film was recovered.