Astronauts return from China’s longest crewed space mission

GBNews24 Desk//

Three Chinese astronauts landed in northern China on Saturday after 183 days in space, state broadcaster CCTV said, ending the country’s longest crewed space mission to date.

The Shenzhou-13 spacecraft is the latest mission in Beijing’s drive to become a major space power rivalling the United States, after landing a rover on Mars and sending probes to the Moon, AFP reports.

The two men and one woman — Zhai Zhigang, Ye Guangfu and Wang Yaping — landed safely in a small capsule shortly before 10 am Beijing time, after six months aboard the Tianhe core module of China’s Tiangong space station.

“Shenzhou 13’s re-entry capsule successfully landed,” state broadcaster CCTV said.

Live footage from CCTV showed the capsule landing in a cloud of dust, with ground crew who had kept clear of the landing site rushing in helicopters to reach the capsule.

Ground crew applauded as the astronauts each took turns to report that they were “feeling good.”

The trio originally launched in the Shenzhou-13 from the Gobi Desert in northwestern China last October, as the second of four crewed missions during 2021-2022 sent to assemble the country’s first permanent space station — Tiangong, which means “heavenly palace.”

Wang became the first Chinese woman to spacewalk last November, as she and her colleague Zhai installed space station equipment during a six-hour stint.