The three Chinese astronauts who made up the Shenzhou 19 crew returned to Earth on Wednesday after 183 days on the Tiangong space station.
Sun Lingdong, Wang Haoze and commander Cai Xuzhe spent nine hours traveling home after their spacecraft undocked from Tiangong on Tuesday afternoon and landed at a site in Dongfeng, next to the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The return was originally scheduled for Tuesday but was delayed a day due to strong winds in Dongfeng.
The journey home was especially significant because Cai and Song spent more than nine consecutive hours in space in December during a spacewalk, setting a new record for extravehicular activity. The walk was to install a new debris shield on Tiangong.
The Shenzhou-19 crew also carried out more than 80 experiments in orbit, among which one was particularly notable: During this experiment, the team placed a brick made from simulated lunar soil on the outer surface of the space station to see if it could help build China's lunar base in the 2030s.
“I feel incredibly proud, happy and excited at this moment,” Song told China Central Television. “We have turned the dedication and hard work of all our researchers into scientific achievements, and we are very proud of that.”
Sourse: www.upi.com
