SHENZHOU 13 ASTRONAUTS RETURN SAFELY TO EARTH AFTER LONGEST CREWED MISSION BY CHINA'S...
0Shenzhou 13 astronauts return safely to Earth after longest crewed mission by China's space agency
Three astronauts have touched back down on Earth after completing the longest crewed mission of China's space program to date. The Shenzhou 13 space capsule landed in the Gobi desert in the northern region of Inner Mongolia. nine hours after the crew departed from China's space station Tiangong. or Heavenly Palace. The team spent six months constructing modules of their country's newest orbital station. the fifth of 11 missions needed to finish the space station by the end of the year. Its core module. Tianhe. was launched in April 2021. Not only was the six month mission the longest carried out by the space program. it was also marked by another milestone — the first spacewalk by a Chinese woman. Wang Yaping. Throughout the 183 days long mission. Wang and crewmates Zhai Zhigang and Ye Guangfu also beamed back physics lessons for Chinese high school students. Barred by the United States from participating in the International Space Station (ISS) in orbit. China has spent the past decade developing technologies to build its own space station. the only one in the world other than the ISS. China launched its first astronaut into space in 2003 and landed robot rovers on the moon in 2013 and on Mars last year. Officials have discussed a possible crewed mission to the moon. On Tuesday. President Xi Jinping visited the launch site in Wenchang on the southern island of Hainan from which the Tianhe module was fired into orbit. 'Persist in pursuing the frontiers of world aerospace development and the major strategic needs of national aerospace.' Mr Xi told staff onsite. AP
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