April 30 (UPI) -- The three Chinese astronauts that served as the Shenzhou-19 crew returned to Earth Wednesday after a 183-day long mission about the Tiangong space station.
Song Lingdong, Wang Haoze and Commander Cai Xuzhe spent nine hours on the trip home after it undocked from Tiangong Tuesday afternoon and landed at the Dongfeng landing site near the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The return had been originally set for Tuesday but held off a day due to high winds at Dongfeng.
The trip was especially notable as Cai and Song spent more than nine hours straight in space back in December during a spacewalk, which set a new record for extravehicular activity. The walk took place so Cai and Song could install a new space debris shield on Tiangong.
The Shenzhou-19 crew also performed over 80 experiments while in orbit, with one especially notable as it saw the crew place a brick made from simulated lunar soil on the exterior of the space station, in order to determine if this could help when China builds a moon base in the 2030s.
"At this moment, I feel incredibly proud, happy, and full of anticipation," Song said to China Central Television, "We've transformed the dedication and hard work of all our researchers into scientific research achievements, and we are very proud of that."
