(Photo: AFP)Three Chinese astronauts landed in northern China on Saturday after 183 days in space, ending the country's longest crewed space mission to date. Wang became the first Chinese woman to spacewalk last November, as she and her colleague Zhai installed space station equipment during a six-hour stint. Six months will become the normal astronaut residence period aboard the Chinese space station, according to the state broadcaster. - Space race -The world's second-largest economy has put billions into its military-run space programme, with hopes of having a permanently crewed space station by 2022 and eventually sending humans to the Moon. China has been excluded from the International Space Station (ISS) since 2011, when the US banned the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) from engaging with it.

Source: Bangkok Post April 16, 2022 06:39 UTC