Chinese Astronauts Land Back on Earth After Successful Trip
According to state media, three Chinese astronauts have successfully returned to Earth on Tuesday following a five-month stay in orbit at the country’s space station.
Jing Haipeng, Zhu Yangzhu and Gui Haichao hit China’s Dongfeng landing site at 8:11 a.m. (0011 GMT), according to state broadcaster CCTV.
Footage showed their reentry capsule parachuting into the rugged Gobi desert, raising a cloud of orange dust as it hit the ground.
“On-site medical monitoring and insurance personnel confirmed that the astronauts… are in good health,” CCTV said.
“The flight mission of the Shenzhou-16 crew was a complete success.”
Jing, Zhu and Gui traveled to China’s Tiangong Space Station in late May and spent 154 days in orbit.
They used the time to do scientific experiments and completed an almost eight-hour spacewalk.
A new crew replaced them last week after the Shenzhou-17 mission exploded from the Jiuquan launch site in the country’s northwest.
Tang Hongbo, Tang Shengjie and Jiang Xinlin will conduct “space science and application payload tests,” according to the country’s manned space agency.
They also perform maintenance work to repair minor damage to the station caused by space debris.
Beijing has stepped up plans to become a major space power since President Xi Jinping took the reins a decade ago.
The world’s second largest economy has invested billions of dollars in a military space program to catch up with the United States and Russia.
China also plans to send a manned mission to the moon by 2030 and eventually build a base on the lunar surface.
