Astronauts Ye Guangfu, Wang Yaping and Zhai Zhigang waved at a departure ceremony before being launched on the Shenzhou 13 spacecraft in October 2021.
Three Chinese astronauts returned to Earth on Saturday after 183 days in space, ending China’s longest crew crew as it continues its quest to become a major space power.
The Shenzhou-13 spacecraft was the last mission in Beijing’s quest to compete with the United States after landing a rover on Mars and sending probes to the moon.
Live footage from state-run CCTV shows the capsule landing in a cloud of dust, with the ground crew staying away from the landing site speeding by helicopter to reach the capsule.
The two men and a woman – Jai Jigan, Ye Guangfu and Wang Yaping – returned to Earth just before 10 a.m. Beijing time (02:00 GMT), after six months aboard the Tianhe main module of China’s Tiangong space station.
The ground crew applauded when the astronauts took turns reporting that they were in good physical condition.
Jay was the first to come out of the capsule approximately 45 minutes after landing, waving and grinning at the cameras as he was lifted by the ground crew in a specially designed chair before being tied in a blanket.
“I am proud of our heroic country,” Jay said in an interview with CCTV shortly after leaving the capsule. “I feel extremely good.”
The trio originally launched in Shenzhou-13 from China’s northwestern Gobi Desert last October, the second of four crew missions in 2021-2022 sent to assemble the country’s first permanent space station, Tiangong, meaning “heavenly palace.”
Wang became the first Chinese woman to go into space last November as she and her colleague Jai installed equipment on the space station during a six-hour stay.
Mission Commander Jai, 55, is a former fighter pilot who made China’s first spacewalk in 2008 while Ye was a People’s Liberation Army pilot.
The trio completed two space trips, conducted numerous scientific experiments, set up equipment and tested technologies for future construction during their stay in orbit.
The astronauts have spent the last few weeks arranging and preparing the cabin facilities and equipment for the crew of the arriving Shenzhou-14, which is expected to be launched in the coming months.
The previous record duration of China’s space flight was set by last year’s deployment of Shenzhou-12, which lasted 92 days.
Six months will be the normal period for astronauts to stay aboard the Chinese space station, according to state television CCTV.
Space race
The world’s second-largest economy has poured billions into its military space program, hoping to have a permanently manned space station by 2022 and possibly send people to the moon.
The country has come a long way in catching up with the United States and Russia, whose astronauts and astronauts have decades of experience in space exploration.
But under Chinese President Xi Jinping, the country’s plans for its heavily promoted “space dream” were exaggerated.
In addition to a space station, Beijing also plans to build a base on the moon, and the country’s National Space Administration has said it aims to launch a lunar mission with a crew by 2029.
China has been excluded from the International Space Station since 2011, when the United States banned NASA from working with the country.
Although China has no plans to use its space station for ISS-wide global cooperation, Beijing has said it is open to foreign cooperation, although the scope of that cooperation is still unclear.
The ISS is due to retire after 2024, although NASA has said it may remain operational until 2030.
An astronaut conducts the first spacewalk by a Chinese woman
© 2022 AFP
Citation: Three Chinese astronauts return to Earth after six months in space (2022, April 16), extracted on April 17, 2022 from
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