China's first woman cosmonaut and two of her colleagues returned to Earth on Friday after successfully accomplishing the country's first-ever manual space docking during a two-week mission, giving a boost to Beijing's efforts to build a space station by 2020.
The spacecraft Shenzhou-9 carrying the three astronauts landed at the designated spot at Inner Mongolia region.
The landing, which was shown live on the television was a bit bumpy as the module turned upside down as it hit the ground.
Ground stations declared that the landing was successful. The first Chinese woman astronaut Liu Yang, and her two male colleagues Mission commander Jing Haipeng and Liu Wang were safe.
The two-week space mission was a key step towards building a space station, which China aims to do by 2020.
The module aided by a huge parachute was seen landing almost at the designated site in the grass lands of inner Mongolia.
The ground search and rescue team moved toward the landing site as soon as the capsule landed.
© Copyright 2024 PTI. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of PTI content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent.
