Wednesday, April 30

China's Shenzhou-19 mission has finally returned to Earth, carrying three astronauts who had gone for a visit to the Tiangong Space Station.

Shenzhou-19 was launched on October 29 and carried three astronauts, making it a manned, six-month mission. The spacecraft traveled to China's Tiangong Space Station, which is China's first long-term space station. Completed in late 2022, the station has a maximum capacity of 6 and is around one-third the size of the International Space Station.

Shenzhou-19 was carrying three astronauts: Cai Xuzhe, Song Lingdong, and Wang Haoze. The three of them spent over six months in space together, conducting all sorts of experiments and spacewalks.

In December, Cai Xuzhe and Song Lingdong broke the world record for the longest extravehicular activity after completing a nine hour and six minute spacewalk. During that trip, he also used the station's robotic equipment to install space debris protection devices, which are a major component on any space station.

In total, the astronauts conducted 86 experiments while onboard, including several tests with lunar soil that could provide valuable information when building a moon base in the future. Due to the magnitude of that type of project, it is likely that China's space agency would work with other countries to complete a moon base, meaning that any information gained by anyone is extremely important.

Before leaving, they welcomed the crew of Shenzhou-20 to the space station, who arrived on Monday. Then, the astronauts finally departed from the space station yesterday before traveling back down to Earth on a nine-hour journey. They touched down at the Dongfeng landing area in the autonomous region of Inner Mongolia, concluding their mission. Now, the astronauts aboard Shenzhou-20 will stay onboard Tiangong Space Station for the next six months before another mission heads up.

Fact of the Day (Today): When it was first built in 1923, the Hollywood sign used to say Hollywoodland. However, after Hollywood entered the spotlight, the "land" was removed in 1949, creating the Hollywood sign known today.

Quote of the Day (Gracious Quotes): Trust is like a vase… once it’s broken, though you can fix it, the vase will never be same again. (Walter Inglis Anderson)

Word of the Day (Merriam-Webster): Furtive (adj, FER-tiv) - Furtive describes something that is done in a quiet and secret way to avoid being noticed. It can also mean "expressive of stealth" or "sly" (as in "a furtive look"), or "obtained underhandedly" (as in "furtive gains").

In a Sentence: We exchanged furtive smiles across the table, carefully not to attract the teacher's attention.