Three Chinese language astronauts returned to Earth on Wednesday after six months on the nation’s house station, state media footage confirmed, as Beijing advances in direction of its goal to develop into a significant celestial energy.
China has ploughed billions of {dollars} into its house programme lately in an effort to attain what President Xi Jinping describes because the nation’s “house dream”.
The world’s second-largest economic system has daring plans to ship a crewed mission to the Moon by the top of the last decade and finally construct a base on the lunar floor.
Its newest launch final week ferried a trio of astronauts to the Tiangong house station, heralding the beginning of the Shenzhou-20 mission.
They’ve taken over from Shenzhou-19 crew Cai Xuzhe, Track Lingdong and Wang Haoze, whose touchdown capsule touched down within the northern Interior Mongolia area on Wednesday.
Shortly after the touchdown, the Xinhua state information company mentioned the mission was a “full success”, including that the trio had been in “good well being”.
Photos from state broadcaster CCTV confirmed the capsule, connected to a red-and-white striped parachute, descending by way of an azure sky earlier than hitting the bottom in a cloud of brown desert mud.
Groups of officers in white and orange jumpsuits then rushed to open the golden craft, and one planted a fluttering nationwide flag into the sandy soil close by.
The Shenzhou-19 crew had labored on the house station since October, the place they carried out experiments and set a brand new document for the longest ever spacewalk.
They had been initially scheduled to return on Tuesday, however the mission was postponed as a consequence of unhealthy climate on the Dongfeng touchdown web site, in keeping with Chinese language authorities.
Wang, 35, was China’s solely lady spaceflight engineer on the time of the launch, in keeping with the Chinese language Manned House Company (CMSA).
Commander Cai, a 48-year-old former air drive pilot, beforehand served aboard Tiangong as a part of the Shenzhou-14 mission in 2022.
Track, a 34-year-old onetime air drive pilot, accomplished the group of spacefarers popularly dubbed “taikonauts” in China.
Final week, China noticed off the Shenzhou-20 crew in a feast of pomp and pageantry on the Jiuquan Satellite tv for pc Launch Base within the barren desert of northwestern Gansu province.
A navy band and crowds of flag-waving well-wishers bade farewell to the crew earlier than they blasted off on a Lengthy March-2F rocket.
State media reported that they assumed management of the house station after a handover ceremony with its former occupants on Sunday.
The all-male Shenzhou-20 crew is headed by Chen Dong, 46, a former fighter pilot and veteran house explorer who in 2022 turned the primary Chinese language astronaut to clock up greater than 200 cumulative days in orbit.
The opposite two crew members — 40-year-old former air drive pilot Chen Zhongrui, and 35-year-old former house know-how engineer Wang Jie — are on their first house flight.
Throughout their six-month stint, the crew will perform experiments in physics and life sciences and set up protecting tools towards house particles.
For the primary time, they may even convey aboard planarians, aquatic flatworms identified for his or her regenerative skills.
China’s house programme is the third to place people in orbit and has additionally landed robotic rovers on Mars and the Moon because it catches up with the 2 most established cosmic powers, the USA and Russia.
Tiangong — whose identify means “celestial palace” in Chinese language — is its tour de drive.
China has by no means been concerned within the Worldwide House Station as a consequence of opposition from the USA.
Washington plans to return to the Moon in 2027, although the election of President Donald Trump introduced uncertainty over the mission’s destiny.
AFP
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