China's Shenzhou 11 Crew Lands on Earth After Month-Long Space Lab Mission

[kebob]

Source: Space.com

By Robert Z. Pearlman, collectSPACE.com Editor | November 18, 2016 11:25am ET



Two Chinese astronauts returned to Earth early Friday morning (Nov. 18) after a month-long space lab mission that set a new record for their country's human spaceflight program and advanced preparations for China's first space station.

Jing Haipeng, 50, and Chen Dong, 37, who launched on board China's Shenzhou 11 spacecraft on Oct. 16, landed at 12:59 a.m. EST (0559 GMT or 1:59 p.m. Beijing time) in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China. Their 32 days in space more than doubled China's previous longest crewed mission.

Jing, who is now China's first veteran of three spaceflights, and Chen, who was on his first mission, spent 30 days on board the Tiangong-2 space lab, working on maintenance techniques, conducting science experiments and speaking with students and government leaders on the ground.

On Wednesday (Nov. 16), the two taikonauts boarded their Shenzhou 11 spacecraft and undocked from the Tiangong-2, beginning a two-day journey back to Earth. Descending under a parachute on Friday, the Shenzhou capsule fired retro-thrusters just before safely touching down and tipping onto its side.

Read more: http://www.space.com/34766-chinese-astronauts-month-long-spaceflight-landing.html

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Why isn't our alleged news media reporting on this??? China's in the process of overtaking us in space! And he who rules the skies will rule the world!

[bermudat]

1. I have always wondered why more Americans aren't outraged

that American astronauts have to catch rides to the international space station with Russia.
China will become the go to country for launching satellites.

[xor]

2. Because the outrage over retiring the shuttle before a replacement

has come and gone. Continuing to rage about it serves little purpose at this point. There are several manned spaced flight options being developed and that will be coming into use over the next few years. What else can be done? Instead of raging about the lack of capability, it's far better to cheer on what's being done and show our support for continued development.

[xor]

3. How are they overtaking anyone?

You can debate the decision to retire the shuttle when they did, but that doesn't mean all US space missions ceased. NASA/JPL does more science than all the other space agencies combined. Have you looked at the current missions that they have going on? Space exploration is far more than just sending people into orbit. Also, are you aware of the current programs being developed for manned space flight by both NASA and US private space firms?

That being said, it's awesome to see China doing what it is doing. I hope they have continued success in their space program. Why is that whenever China does something like this, people feel they either need to shit on the US/NASA or shit on China? It's such an odd thing.