A few hours ago, the three Chinese taikonauts of the Shenzhou 12 mission returned to Earth after spending about three months on the Chinese space station’s Tianhe core module. Nie Haisheng, Liu Boming, and Tang Hongbo had left Tianhe about a day earlier to land at a site called Dongfeng in China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. It was the longest Chinese space mission completed so far but the next missions to the Chinese space station are expected to last six months.

Launched on June 17, 2021, the Shenzhou 12 mission had an important purpose, as it brought the first taikonauts, as the Chinese call their astronauts, to the new Chinese space station’s first module. This means that verifying that all systems worked properly was a crucial part of their mission.

For the three taikonauts, there was also the task of installing some instruments outside the Tianhe module. Two spacewalks also made it possible to test new spacesuits designed for that type of activity. The first spacewalk was conducted on July 4 by Liu Boming and Tang Hongbo and lasted almost 7 hours. The second spacewalk was conducted on August 20 by Nie Haisheng and Liu Boming and lasted nearly 6 hours.

The information provided by the Chinese on their activities in space is limited but among the announcements is that of the start of the Shenzhou 13 mission, scheduled for October 16. With this mission, crews are scheduled to stay on the Chinese space station for six months. Other modules will be launched and connected to Tianhe to expand the station. Additional supplies for the taikonauts will be sent on the Tianzhou-3 cargo spacecraft, which is scheduled to be launched on September 20.

While other nations debate about the possible extensions of the International Space Station’s life, China continues its progress in its own space program. The Russians have been talking about their own space station for years but they launched the Nauka/MLM module over a decade late. Meanwhile, China could have a smaller but fully operational space station within a year if the launch of the other two modules is on schedule.