Chinese astronauts’ return delayed due to bad weather, longest spacewalk completed

The return of three Chinese astronauts from the Tiangong space station has been postponed due to adverse weather conditions, according to China’s official Xinhua news agency.Cai Xuzhe, Song Lingdong, and Wang Haoze were scheduled to land on Tuesday in Dongfeng, Inner Mongolia, after spending six months aboard the space station. The delay, officials said, was to “guarantee the health and safety of the astronauts” as weather conditions were not deemed suitable for landing.
The three were sent up to China’s Tiangong space station in October last year, and a new crew of astronauts recently arrived to replace them.
The three Chinese astronauts have carried out experiments and improvements to the space station during their time on board. Notably, astronauts Cai and Song performed a record-breaking nine-hour spacewalk—the longest in history—according to China’s Manned Space Agency.Read more: Amazon launches its first internet satellites to compete against SpaceX’s Starlinks

China’s space programme has accelerated in recent years. China built and now independently operates the Tiangong space station after it was excluded from the International Space Station due to U.S. concerns over military involvement in its space operations. The country has also achieved milestones such as landing a rover on the far side of the moon and sending an explorer to Mars. Its long-term goals include sending astronauts to the moon by 2030.

There are still challenges regarding delays in space travel. Last year, two American astronauts were stranded in space for nine months after technical issues with a Boeing test capsule forced NASA to postpone their return due to safety concerns.