Chinees astronauts returnes after longest china's space travel
Two Chinese astronauts have successfully returned to Earth after 30 days in space.
Jing
Haipeng and Chen Dong have lived and worked in the Tiangong-2 space lab
since October 18, the longest stay in space by Chinese astronauts.
The
reentry module of the Shenzhou-11 spacecraft landed in Inner Mongolia
around 2.15 p.m. Friday local time (01.15 a.m ET), after detaching from
the space lab and heading for home Thursday. The Tiangong-2, whose name translates as "heavenly vessel," was launched on September 15 and had unmanned until the astronauts arrived the following month.
The lab is a key part of China's space program, on which the country has spent billions of dollars, with the eventual aim of launching a Chinese space station into orbit.
China
is planning to launch the permanent 20-ton space station before 2024,
when the International Space Station (ISS) is retired, according to state news agency Xinhua.
"Tiangong
is a precursor testbed of capabilities. Building toward the large space
station has always been the culminating goal of the Shenzhou program,"
said Joan Johnson-Freese, a professor at the Naval War College
specializing in space programs and space security.
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