Three Chinese language astronauts are set to return to Earth tonight, and you may watch it stay.
China’s Shenzhou 16 astronauts (or taikonauts, as Chinese language spaceflyers are recognized) launched to the nation’s Tiangong house station aboard a Lengthy March 2F rocket in Might 2023. The crew consists of commander Jing Haipeng, spaceflight engineer Zhu Yangzhu and payload specialist Gui Haichao.
The trio has spent round 5 months aboard the orbital laboratory conducting a variety of scientific experiments and public outreach. Zhu and Jing additionally executed an eight-hour spacewalk in June 2023 to carry out upkeep on cameras aboard Tiangong. Tonight, all eyes are again on the crew as their Shenzhou spacecraft is ready to the touch down on the Dongfeng Touchdown Web site in China’s Inside Mongolia Autonomous Area.
Protection of the capsule’s return begins at 7 p.m. ET (2300 GMT). Watch it stay right here at Area.com courtesy of CCTV.
Associated: China’s Shenzhou 17 astronauts arrive at Tiangong house station (video)
Shenzhou-16’s substitute crew, Shenzhou-17, arrived at Tiangong simply days in the past. “Construct a dream on the Tiangong house station and proceed to work laborious,” the brand new crew stated in unison together with the three homebound astronauts they changed throughout a welcome ceremony (translation by Chinese language broadcaster CCTV, which livestreamed the occasion). “China’s house station is all the time price trying ahead to.”
The newly-arrived Shenzhou 17 crew consists of mission commander Tang Hongbo, aged 48, and former Folks’s Liberation Military Air Pressure (PLAAF) fighter pilots Tang Shengjie, aged 34, and Jiang Xinlin, aged 35. They’re the seventh and youngest crew to go to Tiangong so far.
Tiangong is about one-fifth the scale of the Worldwide Area Station, and was simply accomplished in late 2022 with the addition of its third and remaining part, the Mengtian module.
