Chinese astronauts — or taikonauts, because the nation calls them — Zhai Zhigang, Ye Guangfu and Wang Yaping have returned to Earth after spending 183 days in area. That’s the nation’s longest crewed mission to this point to date, with the taikonauts spending these six months aboard Tianhe, the residing module of China’s Tiangong area station. As Space notes, Wang Yaping was additionally the primary feminine taikonaut to stay aboard Tianhe and the primary Chinese lady to go on a spacewalk. 

The taikonauts had been a part of the Shenzhou-13 mission, which is the second of 4 crewed missions and the fifth out of the eleven total missions China intends to launch to complete constructing its area station by the top of the yr. They did two spacewalks and carried out 20 science experiments whereas in orbit. The crew additionally manually managed the Tianhe module for a docking experiment with an unmanned cargo spacecraft. 

China, which is not an ISS associate, launched Tianhe to low Earth orbit in April 2021 and shortly adopted that up with a number of extra launches in an effort to satisfy its area station’s 2022 building deadline. The nation despatched the primary crewed mission to its fledgling station in June final yr, and the three taikonauts concerned spent three months in Tianhe testing methods and conducting spacewalks. In June, China is predicted to launch its subsequent crewed mission, the Shenzhou-14, with three taikonauts onboard who’ll additionally spend six months in orbit.