The astronaut crew of the Shenzhou 11 mission has successfully returned to Earth.
After a month-long mission aboard what will soon become China’s own space station, the Shenzhou 11 astronauts have returned to Earth. The reentry module successfully landed in Mongolia, on November 18. This was China’s longest manned mission to date.
The mission involved the Shenzhou 11 commander Jing Haipeng and the flight engineer Chen Dong. They are able to return home without any problems after living in the orbit of the Earth aboard China’s Tiangong 2 orbital laboratory. The mission initially started on October 17th, with the crew being launched aboard the Long March 2F rocket.
The mission was of major importance to China. First, with its successful completion the country has demonstrated that it has required capabilities to support the extensive stays of its astronauts in space. Second, the mission was another step forward for China and its attempts to eventually build its own permanent space hub for astronauts.
The Shenzhou 11 together with Tiangong 2 consisted of testing key technologies required by China’s future endeavors like sending a larger space station module into orbit which will be built in the coming years until 2022.
In regards to the specifics of the Shenzhou 11 mission, the astronauts were required to live in the “experiment cabin” of the space laboratory for 30 days, where they conducted experiments and other types of research. Their daily schedule involved working eight hours every day for six days a week, testing various spacecraft operations as well as performing studies on the human physiology as well as plant growth.
Before they departed for Earth, the astronauts deployed a small satellite into orbit, the BanXing 2 developed by China’s Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology. The satellite will take high-resolution pictures of the Tiangong 2 laboratory. Also, the astronauts took part in a video conference with media outlets and with China’s president, Xi Jinping.
China is already planning to start the selection of the next generation of their astronauts in 2017. They will select candidates mostly from their space engineers, air force pilots as well as other from technical staff in related fields. However, the country’s next mission involves sending the Tianzhou unmanned cargo ship to the lab in orbit in April 2007. The mission is meant to test the autonomous transfer of fuel between the spacecraft.
Photo Credit: Ren Junchuan / Xinhua
Deborah Campbell
