After six months of stay in China's orbiting space station, three astronauts returned to Earth on Tuesday morning. According to the official Xinhua News Agency, three astronauts, Jing Haipeng, Zhu Yangzhu, and Gui Haichao, appeared in good health from the return capsule close to the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre, located on the edge of the Gobi Desert. Last week, the station's three-member new crew made their way to Tiangong.
The new crew members will take care of the scientific experiments, maintaining equipment and conducting medical research.
China aims to land humans on the moon
China completed its first crewed space mission in 2003 and aims to land humans on the moon by 2030. The space crew returned samples from the lunar surface and set down a rover on the moon's less explored side. The country also aims to launch a new telescope to study the deep cosmos.
After being excluded from the International Space Station, China constructed its own space station due to the US concerns over Chinese military dominance over the country's space programme.
With minimal cooperation between the two countries, as the US law mandated, Beijing has emerged as the US's main rival for reaching new milestones in outer space. This reflects the world's two largest economies' rivalry for influence in technological, commerce, military, and diplomatic domains, with China's claim to sovereignty over the South China Sea and self-governing Taiwan being particular grounds of dispute.
Lunar programs of the US and China
Meanwhile, the United States aims to land astronauts on the moon's surface by the end of 2025 as part of a renewed commitment to crewed missions, assisted by private sector actors such as SpaceX and Blue Origin. Regarding their lunar programs, the two countries have already landed rovers on Mars, and China aims to follow the United States in landing a spacecraft on an asteroid.
(With PTI inputs)
