A little while ago, the three Chinese taikonauts of the Shenzhou 14 mission returned to Earth after spending almost six months on the Chinese space station Tiangong. The three taikonauts Cai Xuzhe, Chen Dong, and Liu Yang departed the station a few hours earlier to land at a site called Dongfeng in China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. A procedure that significantly reduces the time to return to Earth worked perfectly again.

Launched on June 5, 2022, the Shenzhou 14 mission aimed to manage the completion of the construction of the Chinese space station’s first phase. The Tianhe module really became the central one to obtain the current Tiangong station with the arrival of Wentian and Mengtian laboratories in orbit.

The Shenzhou 14 mission tasks included three spacewalks to install various equipment outside the station, including some needed to connect the laboratories to the Tianhe core module. The three taikonauts also carried out various scientific experiments, increased by the availability of the Wentian and Mengtian laboratories.

The expansion of the Chinese space station allowed the arrival of three Shenzhou 15 mission taikonauts before the departure of the ones from the Shenzhou 14 mission and to support a crew of six for a few days. According to the program, there should always be a crew on board the Tiangong station at this point.

Each new mission is a step forward for China’s ambitious space program. Despite the tensions between the partners operating the International Space Station, its future should be certain for a few more years. However, there are various more or less solid projects regarding a Russian national space station and some private space stations.

Right now, it’s hard to figure out which projects will actually be developed while China’s Tiangong space station is in orbit. It’s a small space station compared to the International Space Station but fully functional and suitable for developing various technologies, starting with the ones necessary for the Chinese space program.