Key points
- Three Chinese astronauts return home
- They set a new record for longest ever spacewalk
- They had worked on space station since October 2024
ISLAMABAD: The three astronauts of the Shenzhou-19 crewed mission were all out of the return capsule on Wednesday afternoon, and the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) declared the mission a success, according to Xinhua.
AFP reported China has ploughed billions of dollars into its space programme in recent years, aiming to fly a crewed mission to the Moon by 2030 and eventually build a base on the lunar surface.
Its latest launch last week ferried a trio of astronauts to the Tiangong space station, heralding the start of the Shenzhou-20 mission.
They have taken over from Shenzhou-19 crew Cai Xuzhe, Song Lingdong and Wang Haoze, whose landing capsule touched down in the northern Inner Mongolia region on Wednesday.
Only woman spaceflight engineer
Pictures from state broadcaster CCTV showed the capsule, attached to a red-and-white striped parachute, descending through an azure sky before touching down in a cloud of brown desert dust.
Its occupants had worked on the space station since October, where they carried out experiments and set a new record for the longest ever spacewalk.
The crew were initially scheduled to return on Tuesday, but the mission was postponed due to bad weather at the landing site, according to Chinese authorities.
Wang, 35, was China’s only woman spaceflight engineer at the time of the launch, according to the Chinese Manned Space Agency (CMSA).
Commander Cai, a 48-year-old former air force pilot, previously served aboard Tiangong as part of the Shenzhou-14 mission in 2022.
Song, a 34-year-old onetime air force pilot, completed the group of spacefarers popularly dubbed “taikonauts” in China.
