​Taikonauts Jing Haipeng, Zhu Yangzhu and Gui Haichao arrived safely on Earth on the morning of October 31, after spending about 5 months in orbit (154 days) aboard China’s Tiangong Space Station. Gui Haichao, 36, a professor at Beihang University, is the first civilian and only non-military taikonaut selected for China’s 2020 astronaut program.

Jing Haipeng (57 years old) is one of the most experienced taikonauts: this time he visited space for the fourth time, after the Shenzhou-7 (2008), Shenzhou-9 (2012) and Shenzhou-11 (2016) missions. Zhu Yangzhu (37), selected for the space program also in 2020, was on the first orbital mission in the Shenzhou capsule.

China’s Tiangong space station consists of three modules: the Tianhe main module, to which are attached two permanent modules that act as laboratories (Mengtian and Wentian, both launched in 2022). These are periodically joined by the Tianzhou cargo ship (similar to the Russian Progress cargo ship, but with a larger volume), which is launched from Earth to supply the space station and then sent destructively through the atmosphere (an effective escape method). waste generated on board the station). Currently, the Tianhe main module is connected to the cargo ship Tianzhou-6, launched on May 10, 2023.

The Shenzhou capsule is similar to the Russian Soyuz capsule and has three segments: the orbital module (where the capsule docks with the space station), the service module (equipped with solar panels), and the re-entry module (located in the middle). . After detaching from the space station, the three segments separate, and only the re-entry module reaches Earth (where the crew is obviously located).

The three tyconauts aboard the Shenzhou-16 capsule that launched them into orbit left the space station, then performed a series of braking maneuvers that would take them somewhere in the Gobi Desert, the place to which the tyconaut crews return. to Earth Immediately after the Shenzhou-16 capsule detached from the space station’s Tianhe Central Module, they flew over the station for a visual inspection, a maneuver that has become routine in China’s space program. The capsule’s main engines were then activated to launch the capsule on a ballistic trajectory toward the Earth’s surface.

The landing of the “Shenzhou” capsule is similar to the landing of the Russian “Soyuz” capsule: upon entering the atmosphere, the capsule is equipped with a large parachute for effective braking. One of the Shenzhou-16 capsule’s parachutes could be seen on live TV with a hole, fortunately not big enough to cause problems during landing. But if this parachute had such a technical problem, it is possible that the parachute of the Shenzhou-17 capsule suffered from a similar problem. It is now in space, packed in a capsule, and we won’t know its condition for about 5 months, when the Shenzhou-17 crew will also return to Earth.

During the on-orbit mission, the Taikonauts performed an extravehicular activity (July 21) during which they installed a series of cameras located outside the Mengtian module.

Tang Hongbo, Tang Shenjie and Jiang Xinlin remained aboard Tiangong, which launched on October 26. Tiangong is currently China’s third space station, following Tiangong-1 (2011-2018) and Tiangong-2 (2016-2019), both of which have now been de-orbited. It is also China’s first multi-module space station (both Tiangong-1 and Tiangong-2 had one module), and the Chinese space agency will launch other modules to expand the station.

But perhaps the most exciting event in the near future will be the launch of the Xuntian Space Telescope (more powerful than the Hubble Space Telescope), which will be placed in an orbit that will periodically bring it closer to the Tiangong Space Station, from where the taikonauts can improve it or repair it as needed.

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