The crew of the Chinese space station “Tiangun” (heavenly palace) successfully completed its six -month mission and returned to Earth.
According to the Office of the Program of the piloted space flights of the PRC (CMSA), the spacecraft “Shenzhou-18”, on the board of which were Taikonauts E Guanfu, Lee Tsun and Lee Guang, landed on the landing site of Dunfen in northern China.
The health status of the Taikonauts, who spent in orbit of 192 days, is evaluated as good. The crew commander E Guanfu, who previously participated in the Shanzhou -13 mission, became a taiconaut who spent the largest amount of time in orbit – a total of 374 days.
Shanzhou-18 crew was launched on April 25 and became the seventh crew that visited the Tiangun space station. He handed over his duties to the new crew as part of Tsai Suyzhe, Song Lindun and Van Haozza, who arrived at the station on October 30 on the Shanzhou-19 spacecraft.
Chinese space station “Tiangun”
China created its own Space station “Tiangun” (“Heavenly Palace”) in the orbit of the Earth in response to the ban on US Cooperation in the field of space research and restrictions on China’s participation in the program of the International Space Station (ISS).
The station consists of the main module and two laboratory modules, and it is also planned to add a space telescope. It was built on the model of the Russian Space station “Mir”.
The main module “Tianhe” (“Heavenly Harmony”) was launched on April 29, 2021, the first laboratory module “Wennyan” (“desire for heaven”) – July 24, 2022, and the second laboratory module “Manchean” (“Dream. about heaven “) – October 31, 2022.
After adding laboratory modules to the main one, the design of the station “T” was completed, and it went into the stage of “implementation and development”. In addition, the plans are to add a space telescope called “Syntyan” (“Exploreation of Heaven”).
A crew of three TIKONAUTS operates at the rotation station, the staff is delivered to the station with Shanzhou ships (Holy Ship), and cargo supplies are carried out using Tianzhou ships (“Heavenly Ship”).