China’s astronauts land safely after area particles collision : NPR

[ad_1] Three Chinese language astronauts are again on earth after they needed to lengthen their keep in outer area attributable to area particles hitting their spacecraft.

SACHA PFEIFFER, HOST:

Now from airplanes to outer area. We've got information of three Chinese language astronauts who're lastly again on Earth. They'd needed to lengthen their keep on China's area station by greater than every week attributable to area particles hitting and damaging their spacecraft. NPR's Emily Feng experiences on their journey residence.

EMILY FENG, BYLINE: Every little thing for the Shenzhou 20 mission - China's twentieth crewed mission to area - was going easily.

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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Talking Mandarin).

FENG: The three astronauts took off from China's Gansu Province this previous April.

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FENG: They then spent six months on board China's area station, conducting experiments on subjects like observing how mice reproduce in area and barbecuing Chinese language meals in low gravity. And when the following crew rotated on board about two weeks in the past...

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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Talking Mandarin).

FENG: ...They welcomed the brand new astronauts on board. However then a number of days later, a bit of area particles cracked a port window of the outgoing Shenzhou 20, the craft that was going to deliver the primary three astronauts residence, delaying their journey. Lincoln Hines researches the politics of outer area at Georgia Tech College, and he says area particles is an actual hazard as a result of it travels at excessive speeds.

LINCOLN HINES: We're speaking about speeds of round 18,000 miles per hour. Type of a body of reference for that is that it is - that is about seven occasions the velocity of a bullet.

FENG: And there is much more area particles lately - all the pieces from a fleck of paint to a free screw to the hundreds of mini satellites that Chinese language and American corporations are launching. China despatched its first crewed mission to area in 2003, and within the greater than twenty years since, it has made massive strides in outer area exploration. Final month, it stated it was on observe to additionally ship an individual to the moon by 2030. However all that could possibly be endangered by deadly area particles.

HINES: And the priority is that over time, it'll be so congested with this particles that we aren't going to really have the ability to use these vital orbits.

FENG: Ultimately, the three astronauts got here again to Earth utilizing the return spacecraft belonging to the crew that simply switched them out. And on Friday, beneath the glow of a mid-afternoon solar...

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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: (Non-English language spoken).

FENG: ...They landed within the flat, unsparing planes of the Inside Mongolia area in China. In complete, the astronauts spent 204 days in orbit. That may be a file for China's area program. Emily Feng, NPR Information.

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