Three Chinese astronauts returned safely to Earth on Saturday after spending a record six months aboard China’s new space station, doubling the previous stay of the country’s longest solo flight in space.
The Shenzhou-13 capsule carrying the astronauts Zhai Zhigang, Wang Yaping and Ye Guangfu landed at the Dongfeng landing site in the Gobi Desert in northern China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region at 9:56 a.m. local time, state-run Xinhua news agency reported. successfully touched.
The Global Times newspaper reported that the medical team confirmed that the crew members were in good health, marking the complete success of the Shenzhou-13 manned spacecraft mission.
Astronauts spent six months tiangong China’s longest single space flight mission of 92 days, set by the space station and Shenzhou-12, nearly doubled the previous record.
Apart from the long spaceflight, the mission has set several records and secured the first position in the country’s manned space history.
Shenzhou spacecraft developer, China Academy of Spacecraft Technology (CAST), said in a statement that the Shenzhou-13 mission discovered the emergency mission mechanism for the first time, with the Shenzhou-14 manned spacecraft and the Long March-2F Y14 rocket in standby . Situation just after the launch of Shenzhou-13 and Long March-2F Y13.
This enabled possible space rescue of Shenzhou-13 Taconauts in case of any malfunction preventing the spacecraft from returning to Earth.
Compared to the return journey of the Shenzhou-12 mission, which took approximately 28 hours, Shenzhou-13 performed a rapid return maneuver which took just eight hours.
CAST said the Shenzhou-13 orbit plan was streamlined to five orbits compared to the Shenzhou-12 mission’s 18, and was designed to further enhance return efficiency, shorten ground surveillance, and make it more accessible to returning astronauts. Designed to be more comfortable.
The probe used three parachutes to slow it from a speed of 200 meters per second to 7 meters per second as it approached Earth.
The Shenzhou 13 crew began their mission in October last year and spent six months in orbit.
The crew performed two spacewalks to install components for the external mechanical arm, adjust the cameras, and test. In November, Wang became the first Chinese woman to perform a spacewalk.
Researchers will now begin a full evaluation of key technologies used on the space station before starting the next phase of the Tiangong mission.
An unmanned supply mission is expected next month from the Shenzhou 14 crewed space station visit to oversee the docking of two space laboratories, named Wentian and Mengtian, to complete the T-shaped space station configuration by the end of the year. Is.
The China Manned Space Agency said last month that the crew for the next two missions had been identified and were in training, but their names were yet to be announced.
In addition to scientific missions, the crew also gave two live science lectures from the space station, during which they conducted various experiments and answered questions from students watching Earth orbit, CGTN, an international English-language Chinese state-run cable TV news service based in Beijing said.
The Global Times reported that with advances in space communications technologies, crew members were able to entertain themselves over the Internet, talking frequently to their families and friends, and having regular space-Earth conversations.
Pang Zihao, a senior space expert, told the Global Times on Saturday that it would usually take about three months for astronauts returning from space to recover their strength.
However, it may take a little longer for the Shenzhou-13 crew, as they have been in space for so long, Pang said.