The three astronauts spent six months on the Chinese space station, with which China hopes to develop its space program and catch up with Europe, the United States and Russia.
It is the longest stay ever made by China in space: the three astronauts of the Shenzhou-13 mission returned to Earth on Saturday after six months spent 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 triggering its red and white parachute, the return capsule where the crew – made up of a woman and two men – had taken place landed shortly before 10:00 a.m. (02:00 GMT) in the desert of Inner Mongolia (north of the China). “Shenzhou-13 return capsule successfully landed”, said state television CCTV. Live CCTV footage showed the capsule landing in a cloud of dust. Ground crews, who had stood clear of the landing site, rushed in helicopters to reach the capsule.
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The ground crew applauded the astronauts who took turns saying they felt “good“. The crew was made up of three army pilots: commander Zhai Zhigang (55), his colleague Wang Yaping (42) – who became the first Chinese woman to carry out a spacewalk in November – and the youngest Ye Guangfu (41 years old), whose first spaceflight it was. Zhai Zhigang exited the capsule first, about 45 minutes after landing.
The former fighter pilot, who performed China’s first spacewalk in 2008, waved to the cameras, smiling, as he was hoisted up by ground crew, before being bundled up in a blanket. “I am proud of our heroic country”, he told CCTV. With 183 days in space, the crew smashes the previous national record for a stay in space, which was 92 days and was set in 2021 during the previous manned mission, Shenzhou-12.
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“The goal (with Shenzhou-13) was not in itself to set a record but to develop the skills necessary for a permanent occupation of the station”China’s ultimate goal, noted Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in the United States.
Named in Chinese Tiangong (“celestial palace) but also known by its English acronym CSS (for “Chinese space stationin French), it should be completed by the end of 2022. Similar in size to the former Russian-Soviet Mir station, its lifespan should be around fifteen years.
Site “world class»
In six months, the crew carried out two spacewalks, continued the construction of the station, led two courses via the Internet for Chinese schoolchildren, carried out experiments and refined their mastery of long-term stays. “For example, they improved their maintenance skills, through spacewalks and manipulations of the robotic arm” of the station, detailed to AFP Chen Lan, analyst of the site GoTaikonauts.com, specialized in the Chinese space program.
Shenzhou-13 was notnot a significant breakthrough” but “the completion of the CSS later this year will be a very important event“, he underlined. Next stages of construction: the dispatch of a cargo ship in May then another manned mission, Shenzhou-14, which should be launched in June.
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The last two space station modules are to be sent from July. They will take the direction of space from the Wenchang launch center, located on the tropical island of Hainan (south) and of which Chinese President Xi Jinping declared Thursday that he wanted to make it a site “world class“. From Shenzhou-14, the CSS should be permanently occupied.
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 achieved some remarkable feats, especially in recent years. At the beginning of 2019, it placed a machine on the far side of the Moon, a world first. In 2020, it brought back samples from the Moon and finalized Beidou, its satellite navigation system, a competitor to the American GPS. In 2021, it landed a small robot on Mars and plans to send men to the Moon by 2030. China has been barred from the International Space Station since 2011, when the United States banned NASA to engage with the Asian country.