BEIJING, Dec. 5 (BNA): Three Chinese astronauts touched down on Earth Sunday aboard the return capsule of the Shenzhou-14 spacecraft, state broadcaster CCTV reported, ending a six-month mission on the Chinese space station. .
The three astronauts — Commander Chen Dong and colleagues Liu Yang and Cai Xuzhe — who were overseeing the pivotal final period of construction on the space station, which was completed in November, said they were fine after landing in an audio broadcast via closed-circuit television. .
The capsule landed at the Dongfeng site in north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region at 8:09 p.m., and the space agency staff declared that the entire mission, which began on June 5, was “a complete success,” CCTV reported.
One by one, workers at the landing site moved the exhausted-looking crew, and by just over 9 p.m., all three had safely exited the capsule, CCTV reported.
A new crew of three Chinese astronauts arrived at the space station aboard the Shenzhou-15 spacecraft to replace them on Wednesday, Reuters reported.
The space station marks a milestone in China’s three-decade-long manned space program, which was first approved in 1992. It also marks the beginning of a permanent Chinese stay in space.
Construction of the station began in April last year with the launch of the first and largest of its three modules, Tianhe, which was the residence of visiting astronauts.
EAE