BEIJING (AP) — Three Chinese language astronauts returned to Earth on Monday after a six-month keep on China’s Tiangong area station.

A parachute slowed their capsule’s nighttime descent to a distant touchdown space in China’s Inside Mongolia area. The crew emerged after touching down at 1:24 a.m. A Chinese language nationwide flag caught within the floor close to the capsule flapped within the wind.

The Tiangong area station, which was accomplished two years in the past, is a part of China’s efforts to be a world chief in area exploration. Lately, the nation’s area program has introduced again rocks from the moon and landed a rover on Mars. It goals to place an individual on the moon by 2030, which might make it the second nation after the US to take action.

The area station astronauts returned after welcoming a substitute three-person crew final week for the most recent six-month mission. The brand new crew will conduct experiments, perform spacewalks and set up tools to guard the station from area particles.

An area company official mentioned in April that Tiangong has maneuvered a number of instances to keep away from particles and had partially misplaced energy when the photo voltaic wing’s energy cables had been hit by particles, in line with a report from the official Xinhua Information Company.

China is among the many nations which have created area particles, together with the reported break-up of a rocket stage in August throughout the launch of the primary 18 satellites for a deliberate communications community just like Starlink.

Tiangong, which implies Heavenly Palace, is in orbit across the earth.

Solely Chinese language astronauts have gone to the area station to date, however an area company spokesperson mentioned final week that China is in discussions to pick and prepare astronauts from different nations to affix the missions, Xinhua reported.

Astronauts from a number of nations have traveled to the Worldwide Area Station, however China is blocked from that program primarily due to U.S. considerations over the navy’s involvement in China’s area program.