Beijing, April. Three Chinese astronauts have returned to Earth six months later aboard their country’s newest orbital station on the longest manned mission yet for China’s ambitious space programme.
The Shenzhou 13 space capsule landed in the Gobi Desert in the northern region of Inner Mongolia, and was shown live on state television, the Associated Press reported.
During the mission, astronaut Wang Yaping performed the first spacewalk by a Chinese woman. Wang and colleagues Zhai Zhigang and Ye Guangfu brought back physics lessons for high school students.
China launched its first astronaut in 2003 and landed robotic vehicles on the moon in 2013 and on Mars last year. Officials discussed a possible manned mission to the Moon.
On Saturday, state television showed pictures from inside the capsule, moving at 200 meters per second over Africa before entering the atmosphere.
The three were the second crew aboard the Tiangong or Heavenly Palace. Its base unit, Tianhe, was launched in April 2021. Plans call for construction to be completed this year by adding two more units.
The authorities have not yet announced the release date of the upcoming crew Tiangong.
China was excluded from the International Space Station due to US concern that its space program is run by the military wing of the ruling Communist Party, the People’s Liberation Army.
China was the third country to launch an astronaut into space on its own, after the former Soviet Union and the United States. Tiangong is China’s third space station after its predecessors launched in 2011 and 2016.
The government announced in 2020 that China’s first reusable spacecraft had landed after a test flight but no photos or details of the craft have been released.
On Tuesday, President Xi Jinping visited the launch site in Wenchang, on the southern island of Hainan, from which the Tianhe spacecraft was launched into orbit.
“Continue to pursue the frontiers of global space development and the major strategic needs of the national space,” Xi told the staff at the site, all in uniform.
MI