Chinese language astronauts return to earth after ‘profitable’ six-month mission By Reuters

By Martin Quin Pollard

BEIJING (Reuters) – Three Chinese language astronauts landed again on earth on Sunday on board the re-entry capsule of the Shenzhou-14 spacecraft, state broadcaster CCTV reported, bringing to an finish a six-month mission on China’s area station.

The three astronauts – commander Chen Dong and teammates Liu Yang and Cai Xuzhe – who had been overseeing the ultimate, pivotal interval of building on the area station, which was accomplished in November, all stated they had been feeling effectively after touchdown in audio aired on CCTV.

The capsule landed on the Dongfeng website in north China’s Internal Mongolia Autonomous area at 8:09 p.m. (1209 GMT), with workers from the area company declaring all the mission, which started on June 5, a “full success”, CCTV reported.

Workers on the touchdown website carried out the exhausted-looking crew one after the other and by simply after 9 p.m. all three had safely exited the capsule, CCTV reported.

A brand new crew of three fellow Chinese language astronauts arrived on the area station aboard the Shenzhou-15 to take over from them on Wednesday.

The area station represents a big milestone in China’s three-decades lengthy manned area programme, first accredited in 1992. It additionally flags the beginning of everlasting Chinese language habitation in area.

Building of the station started in April final yr with the launch of the primary and largest of its three modules, Tianhe, being the residing quarters of visiting astronauts.