China's New Spacecraft Returns to Earth: Official 8 May 2020, by Beiyi Seow, Ludovic Ehret

China's new spacecraft returns to Earth: official 8 May 2020, by Beiyi Seow, Ludovic Ehret

such as its heat resistance—vehicles re-entering Earth's atmosphere face high temperatures.

It is hoped the spaceship will one day transport astronauts to a space station that China plans to complete by 2022—and eventually to the Moon.

The new prototype expands the number of crew that can be sent into space to six from three in an earlier model.

Friday's safe landing follows a snag in an earlier part of the test when an unspecified "anomaly" occurred during the return of the cargo capsule, which was designed to transport equipment. This photo taken on May 5 shows a Long March 5B rocket lifting off from the Wenchang launch site on The completion of the experiment had involved the China's southern Hainan island maiden flight of the Long March 5B rocket, and came after two previous failures—the Long March 7A malfunctioned in March, while the Long March 3B failed to take off in early April. China's new prototype spacecraft "successfully landed" on Friday, marking an important step in its Catching up ambitions to run a permanent space station and send astronauts to the moon. Observers said the successful mission marks a milestone for China. The spacecraft—which was launched Tuesday—arrived safely at a predetermined site, Andrew Jones, who reports on China's space the China Manned Space Agency said, after a activities for the SpaceNews website, said the hitch in an earlier part of the key test. country can "move ahead with its space station plans, and the first module may now launch in early It said the cabin structure of the spacecraft had 2021." been confirmed on site as being intact. "The successful landing of the new spacecraft from The test vessel was launched with a cargo capsule a high orbit also shows China is serious about aboard a new type of carrier rocket from the sending astronauts beyond low Earth Wenchang launch site on the southern island of orbit—something only NASA has achieved—and Hainan. eventually sending its astronauts to the Moon," he added. The space agency said the vessel was in orbit for two days and 19 hours and had completed a Chen Lan, an independent analyst at number of experiments. GoTaikonauts.com, which specialises in China's space programme, added: "We can say that China The return has verified the spacecraft's capabilities has now similar manned space capability of the US

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and Russia."

Beijing has invested heavily in its space programme in recent years as it plays catch-up to the United States, which is the only country to have sent a man to the Moon.

Assembly of the Chinese Tiangong space station, whose name means "Heavenly Palace", is expected to begin this year and finish in 2022.

China became the first nation to land on the far side of the Moon in January 2019, deploying a lunar rover that has driven about 450 metres (1,500 feet) so far.

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