Three Chinese cosmonauts returned to Earth on Sunday after six months aboard the Tiangong space station, the Chinese space agency said, quoted by the media, as calling their mission a “total success.”
The crew, who had been on board the Chinese space station since early June, landed at the Dongfeng site in Inner Mongolia (north China), the space agency reported, quoted by the official Xinhua news agency.
According to medical staff, all three astronauts, including a woman, are in good health.
new space station
The three astronauts of the Shenzhou-14 mission, mission commander Chen Dong, Liu Yang, China’s first female astronaut, and Cai Xuzhe, were tasked with overseeing the final stages of construction of the space station, the jewel of the China’s ambitious space program. .
The last module of the space station under construction had docked at the end of October, a crucial step before the completion of the station assembly scheduled for the end of the year.
“I am honored to have witnessed the formation of the basic configuration of our space station,” said Chen Dong, an air force pilot who became the first Chinese astronaut to stay in orbit for more than 200 days, according to Xinhua.
China banned from the ISS
The crew handed over the three astronauts from the Shenzhou-15 mission, who had arrived at the Tiangong station at the end of November. It was the first in-orbit crew transfer by Chinese astronauts.
China was locked out of the International Space Station (ISS) in 2011 when the United States banned NASA from partnering with Beijing.
When completed, the Tiangong space station is expected to weigh 90 tons, about a quarter of the ISS, and be similar in size to the former Russian-Soviet Mir station. The Tiangong (“Heavenly Palace”) space station, also known by its acronym CSS (for “Chinese Space Station”), will operate for ten years and house several experiments in near-zero gravity.
Source: BFM TV
