(Beijing) This 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.
Posted yesterday at 11:15 p.m.
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 a.m. (2 a.m. GMT) in the Inner Mongolia desert ( northern China).
“The return capsule from Shenzhou-13 has landed successfully,” state broadcaster CCTV said.
Live CCTV footage showed the capsule landing in a cloud of dust. Ground crews, who had kept away from the landing site, rushed in helicopters to reach the capsule.
The ground crew applauded as the astronauts took turns declaring 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 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.
“The goal (with Shenzhou-13) was not in itself to establish a record, but to develop the skills necessary for a permanent occupation of the station”, the final objective of China, noted Jonathan McDowell, astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, USA.
Named in Chinese Tiangong (“Heavenly Palace”), but also known by its English acronym CSS (for “Chinese Space Station” in 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.
“World-class” site
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 have 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 “not a significant breakthrough,” but “the completion of SSC later this year will be a very significant event,” he said.
Next stages of construction: the sending of a cargo ship in May then another manned mission, Shenzhou-14, which should be launched in June.
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 whose Chinese President Xi Jinping declared Thursday that he wanted to make it a “world-class” site.
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, she 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 from engaging with the Asian country.