Two Chinese astronauts returned safely to Earth on Monday, touching down to a hero’s welcome as China’s second-ever manned space mission marked another step in its drive to becoming a space power.
Astronauts Fei Junlong and Nie Haisheng came back from a five-day flight, parachuting softly onto a field in Inner Mongolia in the the capsule of their Shenzhou VI spacecraft.
“Our journey in space was very smooth. The living and working conditions inside the cabin were very good. Our health is okay, thanks,” Fei said on state television, with a radiant smile.
Emerging from the module, the two took a few seconds to adjust to the Earth’s gravity, before being presented with bouquets of flowers and waving to assembled recovery teams and ground control staff.
The successful mission, whose launch was watched on television by millions of people, boosted the nation’s prestige and marked another step in China’s progress to becoming a space power.
Soon after the astronauts touched down, Tang Xianming, director of the China Manned Space Engineering Office, announced that the next manned mission would take place in 2007 and would include a spacewalk.
China’s top legislator Wu Bangguo, who watched the return of Shenzhou VI from the Beijing Aerospace Command and Control Centre, called the completed mission a milestone.
“It is of great significance in elevating China’s prestige in the world and promoting China’s economic, scientific and national defence capabilities, and its national cohesiveness,” he was quoted saying by the People’s Daily website.
Xinhua reported that the capsule landed upright after touching down at 4.33am (8.33pm GMT on Sunday), just one kilometre from the intended landing site.
Shenzhou VI orbited around the earth at a speed of 7,9km per second and travelled 3,25-million kilometres during the five-day journey, it said.
“It was, as far as we know, what I’m sure they’d like to refer to as a picture-perfect mission,” said Joan Johnson-Freese, an expert on China’s space programme at the US Naval War College.
Fei and Nie were taken by helicopter from their remote landing site and given chocolate and herbal tea.
“I can feel that lots of people are thinking about us. We’re very grateful for all the love and concern from our motherland and its people,” Nie said.
In his hometown in Zaoyang county of northern Hebei province, hundreds of proud residents hit the streets from before sunrise to mark the spacecraft’s safe return.
State television showed footage of the town celebrating its most famous native son with firecrackers and dragon dances.
The flight was China’s second manned space mission after Shenzhou V in October 2003, which made China the third nation after the former Soviet Union and the United States to put a man into space.
Shenzhou VI had been carrying enough food, water and oxygen for a seven-day mission, although planners had expected it to spend just five days in orbit.
The spacecraft blasted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre on Inner Mongolia’s border with Gansu province on Wednesday.
The flight was in many ways a step forward compared with China’s maiden space voyage, when lone astronaut Yang Liwei spent 21 hours orbiting the Earth without leaving his seat or taking off his space suit.
In contrast, Fei and Nie conducted a series of unprecedented experiments and manoeuvres, including leaving the re-entry capsule and entering the orbital capsule, and putting on and taking off their bulky suits.
“This is a technology demonstration mission. This mission allowed them to finish testing live support systems,” said Johnson-Freese.
Tang, from the Manned Space Engineering Office, said that in addition to a planned spacewalk in 2007, two spacecraft would dock in orbit between 2009 and 2012 in preparation for establishing a permanent space station.
During their time in space, the astronauts successfully fired rockets to adjust the craft’s altitude, ensuring it remained in its planned orbit — which was crucial for its return to Earth, a mission control spokesperson said. – AFP