奇速英语

“太空出差”半年，神舟十三号航天员平安回家啦！

The Shenzhou 13 spacecraft carrying three astronauts landed safely in northern China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region on Saturday morning (April 16) before 10 a.m., about 9 hours after departing from the core Tianhe module of China’s new Tiangong space station.

The landing meant the accomplishment of the Shenzhou 13 mission, which spent a national-record six months in orbit, the vast majority of it aboard Tianhe. The longest previous Chinese crewed mission was Shenzhou 12, which sent three astronauts to the “newly born” station for 92 days last year.

Shortly after landing, all three astronauts radioed that they were feeling fine after their long space mission, prompting applause from the China National Space Administration’s mission control center in Beijing.

Shenzhou 13 set up other national records as well. For example, the mission’s Wang Yaping became the first woman to live aboard Tianhe and the first Chinese woman ever to conduct a spacewalk. Wang was joined on Shenzhou 13 by Ye Guangfu and Zhai Zhigang, who commanded the mission. The trio lifted off on Oct. 16, at Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert. They arrived in no time at Tianhe, the central piece of China’s unfinished space station. The orbiting lab will ultimately include two more modules, both of which China plans to launch later this year.

Zhai, Wang and Ye were very busy during their six months in orbit. The astronauts—or taikonauts, as Chinese spaceflyers are called—performed two spacewalks, conducted more than 20 different science experiments and delivered two live educational lectures from Tianhe. “A real-time, interactive event with China’s taikonauts highlights the reality of the country’s technological achievements and displays the competencies and usefulness of its space program,” Molly Silk, a doctoral researcher at the University of Manchester in England, said recently. “Such an event serves to enhance national pride and to encourage young citizens to pursue science-based careers,” she added.