After their six-month mission, three astronauts, including China’s first female astronaut, have landed safely in a return capsule. They had carried out construction work on the Tiangong space station. But Beijing is already working on other ambitious space plans.
After six months on China’s Tiangong space station, three taikonauts have returned safely to Earth. The team from the Shenzhou-14 space mission landed at the Dongfeng airfield in Inner Mongolia today, state news agency Xinhua reported, citing the Chinese space agency. Your mission was an “absolute success”. At 183 days in space, it is China’s longest manned space mission to date.
Commander Chen Dong, China’s first female astronaut Liu Yang and Cai Xuzhe arrived at the space station in early June and oversaw the final stages of construction there. A few days ago they were replaced by three taikonauts from the new Shenzhou-15 mission.
The Tiangong space station, whose name means “Heavenly Palace,” is an important part of China’s ambitious space strategy. In November, the last module for the space station had successfully docked. Its construction should be completed by the end of the year. It should then have a mass of about 90 tons. That’s about a quarter the mass of the International Space Station, which China has been banned from using at the instigation of the United States.
Tiangong is expected to remain operational for about a decade. China wants to use the space station for numerous experiments. China has invested billions in the space program to achieve its ambitious goals. China is already successfully operating a reconnaissance vehicle on Mars. There have also been several unmanned missions to the moon.
The Chinese are also currently working on a reusable spacecraft that could be used by 2025. Rock samples from the polar regions of the moon are to be brought to earth over the next five years. Plans for a research station on the moon are also being worked out with Russia.