By Canadian Press

3 Chinese astronauts return to Earth after 6-month mission

Dec 4, 2022 | 5:48 AM

BEIJING (AP) — Three Chinese astronauts landed in a northern desert on Sunday after six months working to complete construction of the Tiangong station, a symbol of the country’s ambitious space program, state TV reported.

A capsule carrying commander Chen Dong and astronauts Liu Yang and Cai Xuzhe touched down at a landing site in the Gobi Desert in northern China at approximately 8:10 p.m. (1210 GMT), China Central Television reported.

The three astronauts were part of the Shenzhou-14 mission, which launched in June.

The Tiangong is part of official Chinese plans for a permanent human presence in orbit.

China in 2003 became the third government to send an astronaut into orbit on its own after the former Soviet Union and the United States.

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The government has landed robot probes on the little-explored far side of the moon and on Mars. In 2020, a probe returned lunar rocks to Earth for the first time since the 1970s.

A crew of three Chinese astronauts blasted off Tuesday for Tiangong’s final construction stage. The station’s third and final module docked with the station this month.

The Associated Press