Chinese astronauts return to earth after six months in space

BEIJING (AP) — China’s Shenzhou-17 spacecraft returned to Earth Tuesday, carrying three astronauts who have completed a six-month mission aboard the country’s orbiting space station.

The three, Tang Hongbo, Tang Shengjie and Jiang Xinlin, landed at the Dongfeng site in north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in the Gobi desert shortly before 6:00 p.m. (1000 GMT). It comes roughly four days after the Shenzhou-18 mission docked with the station with their three-member replacement crew onboard.

China built its own space station after being excluded from the International Space Station, largely because of U.S. concerns over the Chinese military’s total control of the space program amid a sharpening competition in technology between the two geopolitical rivals. This year, the Chinese station is slated for two cargo spacecraft missions and two manned spaceflight missions.