Three Chinese astronauts from the Shenzhou-14 mission successfully returned to Earth

Three Chinese astronauts from the Shenzhou 14 mission returned to Earth on Sunday after six months in space. The crew, who have been aboard the Tiangong space station since early June, landed at the Dongfeng site in Inner Mongolia (northern China) at 20:09 Beijing time (13:09 Paris time), the agency said. , quoted by the official Xinhua news agency as describing its mission as “a complete success.” Mission commander Chen Dong, China’s first female astronaut Liu Yang and Cai Xiuzhe are healthy, according to medical staff.

They were tasked with overseeing the final stages of construction of the space station, the crown jewel of China’s ambitious space program. The last module of the space station under construction was docked at the end of October, an important step before completion of the station assembly, scheduled for the end of the year.

“I am honored to witness the formation of the basic configuration of our space station,” said Chen, an Air Force pilot who became the first Chinese astronaut to stay in orbit for more than 200 days, Xinhua reports.

Relay race for three astronauts of Shenzhou-15

The crew was handed over to the three astronauts of the Shenzhou-15 mission, who arrived at the Tiangong station in late November. This was the first crew transfer into orbit by Chinese astronauts. China was denied access to the International Space Station (ISS) in 2011 when the United States banned NASA from working with Beijing.

When completed, the Tiangong space station is expected to weigh 90 tons (about a quarter of the mass of the ISS) and be similar in size to the former Russian-Soviet Mir station.

The Tiangong (“Heavenly Palace”) space station, also known by its acronym CSS (from the English “Chinese space station”), will operate for about a decade and will conduct various near-zero gravity experiments.