Trial version of China's new-generation spaceship safely returns to Earth

Visual conceptual picture of the new manned spaceship. (Photo provided to China News Service)

The trial version of China's new-generation manned spaceship, which was launched by the Long March-5B in its maiden flight on Tuesday, has successfully made its re-entry to Earth and returned to its designated landing site at 1:49 pm Friday, China's Manned Space Agency announced. After a flight of two days and 19 hours, re-entry capsule of the new spaceship smoothly returned to the Dongfeng landing site in the desert of North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region on Friday, under the precise direction of the Beijing Aerospace Flight Control Center. The new spaceship, which is designed with the aim of supporting China's future manned landing mission on the moon, took an unprecedented large elliptical orbit with an apogee of 8,000 kilometers and a perigee of about 400 kilometers, according to the Beijing Aerospace Flight Control Center. During its in-orbit flight, the spaceship adopted a brand-new autonomous orbit control and guided return system.

The trial version of China's new-generation manned spaceship, which was launched by the Long March-5B in its maiden flight on Tuesday, has successfully made its re-entry to Earth and returned to its designated landing site at 1:49 pm Friday, May 8, 2020, China's Manned Space Agency announced.(Photo provided to China News Service)

The trial version of China's new-generation manned spaceship, which was launched by the Long March-5B in its maiden flight on Tuesday, has successfully made its re-entry to Earth and returned to its designated landing site at 1:49 pm Friday, May 8, 2020, China's Manned Space Agency announced.(Photo provided to China News Service)

The trial version of China's new-generation manned spaceship, which was launched by the Long March-5B in its maiden flight on Tuesday, has successfully made its re-entry to Earth and returned to its designated landing site at 1:49 pm Friday, May 8, 2020, China's Manned Space Agency announced.(Photo provided to China News Service)