With a successful spacewalk behind them, Chinese astronauts
are preparing to return home to Earth Sunday.
Zhai Zhigang, Liu Boming and Jing Haipeng, the three
crewmembers of the Shenzhou 7 mission, China's third manned spaceflight, are
set to land Sunday at about 5:00 a.m. ET (0900 GMT). They are slated to land on
the grassy plains of Inner Mongolia aboard their craft's reentry
module, which is based on the Russian-built Soyuz spacecraft's reentry
module.
After launching
Thursday atop a Long March 2F rocket from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center
in China's Gansu province, the Chinese astronauts, or taikonauts, accomplished a
major milestone in completing their country's first
spacewalk.
The roughly 20-minute excursion took Zhai outside the craft
to retrieve a science experiment from the vehicle's surface, with Liu assisting
and coming part-way out of the hatch to hand Zhai supplies.
The spacewalk demonstrated the capabilities of China's astronauts,
as well as the nation's technological prowess, especially through the successful
performance of a new, Chinese-built
spacesuit. The activity was broadcast live, signaling
China's increasing willingness to be open with the public and press, as well as
strong confidence in its ability to complete the maneuver safely.
"Your success represents a new breakthrough in our
manned space program," said Chinese president and Communist Party leader
Hu Jintao after the spacewalk, according to the Associated Press. "The motherland and the
people thank you."
With the mission's biggest hurdle behind them, the
taikonauts are spending the rest of their roughly 68-hour journey in space
preparing for the return trip. Meals aboard the ship have included typical
Chinese fare such as kung pao chicken, shrimp and dried fruit, the official state
Xinhua news agency reported.
Overall, the mission so far has been smooth for China,
with no major reported glitches, and a safe and successful spacewalk completed.
"This sends the message that China is a space power of the
first order," Dean Cheng, China analyst with Alexandria, Va.-based think tank
CNA Corp., told SPACE.com. "They have the ability to do all sorts of things
in space — put people up, and if necessary, shoot down things," he said,
referring to China's destruction of one of its own satellites with a missile in
January 2007.
The Shenzhou
7 mission is a step toward China's larger goals of establishing a manned
space laboratory, and perhaps eventually landing a person on the moon. The
nation is the third country, after Russia and the United States, to independently
launch astronauts into space.
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