space travel
Six months in space: Three Chinese astronauts have landed
The space capsule lands in Mongolia. photo
© Ren Junchuan/XinHua/dpa
They have lived in space for a long time, now they are back on earth. Viewers could even see the faces of the astronauts live on TV as they re-entered Earth’s atmosphere.
After six months aboard the Chinese space station, three astronauts returned to Earth on Sunday. Their space capsule landed early in the morning local time on a large red and white parachute at the Dongfeng landing area in Inner Mongolia, northeast of the Jiuquan spaceport in the Gobi desert. After a new crew of three flew to the space station with the spaceship “Shenzhou 16” (Magic Ship) on Tuesday, the crew could be replaced.
It was the first crew change since the Tiangong (Heaven’s Palace) space station became fully operational earlier this year. The three astronauts Fei Junlong (57), Deng Qingming (56) and Zhang Lu (46) had worked on board for 186 days. Nine hours before landing, their spacecraft “Shenzhou 15” had undocked from the “Heaven Palace”. Chinese state television broadcast live images from the capsule prior to critical re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere, in which the astronauts appeared relaxed.
Your colleagues will now stay in space for five months. Among them is a civilian for the first time, scientist Gui Haichao from Beijing Aerospace University. The 36-year-old is supposed to take care of experiments. All other Chinese astronauts have so far come from the military. Flight engineer Zhu Yangzhu (36) is also a newcomer to space. The commander is 56-year-old space veteran Jing Haipeng. With his fourth space flight, the major general has booked more missions than any other Chinese astronaut.