The three astronauts of China’s Shenzhou-19 mission – Cai Xuzhe, Song Lingdong and Wang Haoze – returned to Earth on 30 April 2025 at the Dongfeng landing site in Inner Mongolia after six months aboard the Tiangong space station, a stay that included the longest spacewalk ever performed. They handed over the station to the Shenzhou-20 crew, launched a week earlier, as China moves towards a crewed Moon landing before 2030.
Context
- The Shenzhou-19 crew landed on 30 April 2025, a day later than planned because of bad weather at the Dongfeng landing site in Inner Mongolia; state media said all three were in good health.
- They had been on Tiangong since 30 October 2024, when Shenzhou-19 was launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre.
Mission Achievements
- On 17 December 2024, Cai Xuzhe and Song Lingdong completed a nine-hour spacewalk, the longest in history, surpassing the NASA record of 8 hours 56 minutes set in 2001.
- Wang Haoze became China’s first woman spaceflight engineer and the third Chinese woman in space.
- The crew ran dozens of science experiments in life sciences, materials and fluid physics, installed debris shielding and maintained the station.
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Shenzhou-20 Takes Over
- Launched on 24 April 2025 – China’s Space Day – on a Long March-2F rocket from Jiuquan, Gansu province.
- Crew: Chen Dong (commander, first Chinese astronaut with more than 200 cumulative days in orbit), Chen Zhongrui (former air force pilot, first flight) and Wang Jie (space engineer, first flight).
- Objectives: life-science and physics experiments, installing space-debris protection equipment, and the first study of planarians – regenerating flatworms – aboard Tiangong.
About Tiangong
- China’s three-module space station in low Earth orbit: the Tianhe core module (launched April 2021) and the Wentian and Mengtian laboratory modules (2022); permanently crewed since June 2022 with rotations of three astronauts every six months.
- Built after China was excluded from the International Space Station; it has hosted foreign experiments and is expected to welcome a Pakistani astronaut under a 2025 agreement.
China's Space Ambitions
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- A crewed lunar landing before 2030 using the Long March-10 rocket, the Mengzhou spacecraft and the Lanyue lander, followed by an International Lunar Research Station.
- Continued robotic exploration: Chang’e-6 returned the first far-side lunar samples in 2024; Tianwen-2 (2025) targets an asteroid sample return; Tianwen-3 aims at a Mars sample return around 2028.
Important Facts for Examsmost asked
- Shenzhou-19: launched 30 October 2024, returned 30 April 2025; crew Cai Xuzhe, Song Lingdong, Wang Haoze; landing site Dongfeng, Inner Mongolia.
- Record nine-hour spacewalk on 17 December 2024.
- Shenzhou-20: launched 24 April 2025; Chen Dong, Chen Zhongrui, Wang Jie; Long March-2F, Jiuquan.
- Tiangong modules: Tianhe, Wentian, Mengtian.
FAQs
How long do Chinese crews stay on Tiangong?
About six months, with the incoming crew overlapping the outgoing one for a few days of handover.
Why does China not use the ISS?
US law (the 2011 Wolf Amendment) bars NASA from bilateral cooperation with China, so China built its own station.
Why is this in Indian exam current affairs?
Space milestones – records, first flights and station missions – are standard international current-affairs questions, and they frame comparisons with India’s Gaganyaan and Bharatiya Antariksh Station plans.
