China's three-astronaut Shenzhou 16 crew rare back on Earth in good health after landing in a return capsule Tuesday at the edge of the Gobi desert near the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, according to the Xinhua News Agency. Chinese taikonauts (as the space-farers are known) Zhu Yangzhu, Gui Haichao and commander Jing Haiping arrived safely back on terra firma following their May 2023 launch aboard a Long March 2F rocket and their six-month stay aboard the Tiangong space station. At just one-fifth the size, Tiangong is China's answer to the International Space Station after being excluded from the collaborative space lab. Tiangong was assembled in low Earth orbit over about 18 months and completed in late 2022 with the addition of the Mengtian module.
The team's replacement crew, Shenzou 17, arrived at Tiangong on Oct. 26, led by mission commander Tang Hongbo, age 48. The seventh and youngest crew to visit Tiangong also includes former People's Liberation Army Air Force fighter pilot Tang Shengjie and Jiang Xinline, aged 34 and 35 respectively. The new crew will conduct a variety of scientific experiments during their stay, including a spacewalk to inspect and potentially repair the station's solar arrays which China's Manned Space Agency says have suffered minor (but expected) damage due to increased space debris.
"Build a dream at the Tiangong space station and continue to work hard," the two teams said in unison during the station's welcome ceremony. "China's space station is always worth looking forward to."
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