After six months on the “Tiangong” space station, three Taikonauts have landed safely in the Gobi Desert. The Chinese completed field missions and experiments and taught physics lessons from space.

Chinese astronauts Wang Zhai Zhigang, Wang Yaping and Ye Guangfu have returned to Earth after 183 days. Their capsule landed safely in northern China’s Gobi Desert just before 10 a.m. Beijing time (4 a.m. CEST). As reported by state television broadcaster CCTV, it ended the country’s longest manned space mission ever.

Television broadcasts live and showed images from inside the capsule, which flew at 200 meters per second over Africa before entering the atmosphere.

physics lesson from space

Zhai, Wang and Ye spent six months aboard the Tiangong (Heavenly Palace) space station, with military pilot Wang becoming the first Chinese to complete a spacewalk. The mission was led by Wang Zhai Zihang, who in 2008 became the first Chinese to walk in space.

In addition to a total of two field trips to work on the station, Taconauts conducted a number of scientific experiments and technical tests. In December, the crew gave physics lessons to Chinese students from space.

The team was the second crew on the station, which is set to join two more modules this year. In recent years, China has invested billions in its space programs to catch up with the United States and Russia.

The space station’s core module was launched into orbit only last year. According to Chinese plans, “Tiangong” should be fully operational this year. China then wants to maintain a permanent human outpost there. The Chinese government plans to send humans to the moon for the first time in 2029.

After the former Soviet Union and the United States, China is only the third country to have brought astronauts into space with its technology. China has been barred from the International Space Station because its space program is run by the military, which the US opposes.