Shenzhou-18 Crew Back on Earth
China has completed another crew rotation on its Tiangong-3 space station. The Shenzhou-18 crew landed in the Gobi Desert today after about six months in space. Their replacements on Shenzhou-19 arrived last week.
Ye Guangfu, on his second flight, and two rookies, Li Cong and Li Guansu, lifted off on April 25, 2024 at 8:59 am EDT and docked about six-and-a-half hours later. They’ve been aboard the past six months conducting scientific experiments and performing maintenance activities including two spacewalks.
They landed today, November 3, at 12:24 pm EST at the Dongfeng landing site in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. China is 13 hours ahead of EST, so it was a nighttime landing there at 1:34 am November 4. China’s CGTN television network provided live coverage. Descent and touchdown were captured by infrared cameras.



The three taikonauts of the #Shenzhou18 manned mission — Ye Guangfu, Li Cong and Li Guangsu – have been out of the re-entry capsule.
They are in good physical condition, and the mission is a complete success. pic.twitter.com/ZY0I96cmHV— Wu Lei (@wulei2020) November 3, 2024
The Shenzhou-18 crew handed over command of the space station to Shenzhou-19 two days ago. The new crew — Cai Xuzhe, Song Lingdong and Wang Haoze — is expected to stay for six months as well. It includes the third Chinese woman to fly in space, Wang Haoze. Liu Wang and Wang Yaping are the other two.
Xinhua reported that the crew brought back 34.6 kilograms of samples from experiments they conducted. They include “microorganisms, alloy materials and nanomaterials that are difficult to prepare on Earth” and “are poised to advance the development of space fiber lasers, facilitate the creation of extraterrestrial materials and explore the prospects of Earth life spreading through the cosmos.”
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