The three astronauts spent six months on the Chinese space station, which China plans to use to expand its space program and catch up with Europe, the US and Russia.
It is China’s longest stay in space: The three astronauts of the Shenzhou 13 mission returned to earth on Saturday after a six-month stay in the Chinese space station.
This is another successful step for Beijing in its ambitious space program to catch up with the United States, Europe and Russia. After deploying its red and white parachute, the return pod, carrying the crew of one woman and two men, landed in the desert of Inner Mongolia (north of China) just before 10:00 (02:00 GMT) . “The Shenzhou-13 return capsule has landed successfully,” state broadcaster CCTV said. Live surveillance footage showed the capsule landing in a cloud of dust. Ground crews who had stayed away from the landing pad rushed in helicopters to reach the capsule.
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The ground crew cheered as the astronauts took turns saying they felt “fine.” The crew consisted of three army pilots: Commander Zhai Zhigang, 55, his colleague Wang Yaping, 42 – who became the first Chinese woman to spacewalk in November – and the youngest Ye Guangfu (41), whose first spaceflight it was. Zhai Zhigang was the first to exit the capsule, about 45 minutes after landing.
The former fighter pilot, who conducted China’s first spacewalk in 2008, waved at the cameras with a smile as he was picked up by ground crew and then wrapped in a blanket. “I’m proud of our heroic country,” he told CCTV. With 183 days in space, the crew breaks the previous national record for staying in space, which was 92 days, set in 2021 during the previous manned Shenzhou-12 mission.
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“The goal (with Shenzhou-13) was not per se to set a record, but to develop the skills needed to maintain the station manned,” China’s ultimate goal, noted Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center , Fest Astrophysics, USA.
Named Tiangong (‘Heavenly Palace’ in Chinese), but also known by its English acronym CSS (which means ‘Chinese Space Station’ in French), it is scheduled for completion by the end of 2022. Similar in size to the former Russian-Soviet station Mir, its lifespan must be around fifteen years.
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In six months, the crew conducted two spacewalks, continued construction of the station, conducted two courses on the Internet for Chinese schoolchildren, conducted experiments and honed their mastery of long-term stays. “For example, they have honed their maintenance skills through spacewalking and manipulation of the station’s robotic arm,” explained AFP Chen Lan, an analyst at GoTaikonauts.com website, which specializes in China’s space program.
Shenzhou-13 was “not a major breakthrough,” but “the completion of CSS later this year will be a very significant event,” he said. Next phases of construction: dispatch of a cargo ship in May, then another manned mission, Shenzhou-14, to be launched in June.
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The final two space station modules are scheduled to ship from July. They will take the direction of space from the Wenchang Launch Center, located on the tropical island of Hainan (south), whose Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Thursday he wants to make it a “world-class” site. From Shenzhou-14, the CSS will be permanently manned.
China has been investing billions of euros in its space program for several decades and sent its first astronaut into space in 2003. Since then, he has accomplished some notable feats, especially in recent years. In early 2019, it placed a machine on the other side of the moon as a world first. In 2020, it brought back samples from the moon and completed Beidou, its satellite navigation system, a competitor to America’s GPS. In 2021 it landed a small robot on Mars and plans to send humans to the moon by 2030. China has been banned from the International Space Station since 2011, when the United States banned NASA from dealing with the Asian country.