The returning capsule from China's 20th recoverable satellite hit a house in the southwestern province of Sichuan, smashing through the roof and destroying the property, state media said on Sunday. The capsule veered off target when it returned to Earth on Friday after 18 days in orbit, hitting the house in Sichuan's Penglai city, the official Xinhua news agency said. The agency showed a photograph of the two-meter long capsule inside the shell of the four-storey building, surrounded by rubble. It said no one was injured. A resident of the house was quoted as saying that she had left the room in which the satellite landed just five minutes before the probe landed. "The satellite landed in our home," she said. "Perhaps it's a sign that we'll have good luck next year." The capsule was described as part of a probe successfully launched from the Jiquan space center at the end of September and was engaged in gathering geological data. China is the third world nation after Russia and the United States to successfully put astronauts into space. The first manned Chinese space flight completed 14 orbits of the earth in October 2003 with a single astronaut aboard.
