The reentry vehicle shown in http://www.spacedaily.com/news/china-04zzq.html is almost a clone of the old General Electric film spool reentry vehicles used for the American Big Bird satellites (I think the Chinese reentry vehicle is bigger than the old GE RVs). It looks like the nose radius to base radius ratio is 1/2 which was the standard for General Electric (see: http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Evolution_of_Technology/reentry/Tech19G5.htm ). Industry gossip says the heat shield material for the Chinese RVs is wood (teak?).

I'm clueless concerning why China is using film for their satellites. They should be using CCDs. Using film for recon. satellites became obsolete in the 1980s.

Gary