Taikonauts return to Earth after six months

Enlarge image

Commander Chen Dong after landing the return pod

Photo: IMAGO/Li Gang/ IMAGO/Xinhua

Three Chinese taikonauts have landed back on Earth after a six-month mission in space.

As was shown on state television, the return capsule of the "Shenzhou 14" landed on the Dongfeng landing site in the Gobi desert in the north of the People's Republic on Sunday.

At 183 days in space, it is one of the longest manned space missions in the country.

Commander Chen Dong, Liu Yang and their colleague Cai Xuzhe started in early June.

The three Taikonauts had carried out construction work on the almost completed space station "Tiangong" - translated heaven palace.

The station is currently occupied by the successor crew, Shenzhou 15, who began their space mission at the end of November.

Construction should be completed by the end of the year.

The space station should then have a mass of around 90 tons.

That's about a quarter the mass of the International Space Station, which China has been banned from using at the instigation of the United States.

Planned reusable spaceship

"Tiangong" is to become the second permanently inhabited outpost in low-Earth orbit after the ISS, which is managed by NASA.

The space station is expected to remain in operation for around ten years.

China wants to use them for numerous experiments - from studying how plants adapt in space to how liquids behave in weightlessness.

For its ambitious goals, China has invested billions in the space program.

China is already successfully operating a reconnaissance vehicle on Mars.

There have also been several missions to the moon.

The Chinese are also currently working on a reusable spacecraft that could see service by 2025.

Rock samples from the polar regions of the moon are to be brought to earth over the next five years.

Plans for a research station on the moon are also being worked out with Russia.

kfr/dpa/AFP