After circling Earth for six months, the three crew members of China's Shenzhou XIII mission have departed from the Tiangong space station and returned to the mother planet on Saturday morning, finishing the nation's longest manned spaceflight.
Zhai Zhigang, who was the mission commander, Wang Yaping and Ye Guangfu breathed fresh air for the first time after the half-year space journey as ground recovery staff opened the door of their reentry capsule (返回舱) at 10: 03 am.
Medical service workers on the site told China Central Television that the astronauts are in good condition. Carrying the mission crew, the Shenzhou XIII spacecraft left from the Tiangong station at 12: 44 am. In the last hours of their stay inside the Tiangong, the astronauts worked with ground controllers to adjust the station, sending some experimental data back to Earth and sorting out materials.
The crew has set a new record for China's longest spaceflight, almost doubling the previous record of 92 days created by their colleagues in the Shenzhou XII mission who travelled with Tiangong from mid-June to mid-September last year.
During the Shenzhou XIII mission, the astronauts carried out two spacewalks that totaled more than 12 hours. They tested components on the station's robotic arm and used it to practice spacewalk. Wang took part in the first spacewalk on Nov 7, becoming the first female Chinese spacewalker.
The crew members also carried out two science lectures from the space station for Chinese students. In one experiment, Wang used a Bing Dwen Dwen toy, the popular mascot (吉祥物) of the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games, to display how objects fly in weightless environment. The space-based lessons marked the start of the Tiangong Class series, China's first space lecture series that aims to popularize space science and inspire youngsters to pursue their "science and space dreams", according to the manned space agency.
