The Shenzhou-18 crew at the China Space Station. /CFP
China's Shenzhou-18 crew is scheduled to return to Earth on November 4, the China Manned Space Agency announced at a press conference on Tuesday.
The crew will return to the Dongfeng landing site in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region after completing in-orbit handover with the incoming Shenzhou-19 crew.
The crew members, Ye Guangfu, Li Cong and Li Guangsu, who started their mission in April, are now in good condition and making preparations for their return.
Recently, they completed in-orbit data clearing and transmission, inventory counting and sorting, and other related tasks.
They also advanced various scientific experiments aboard the space station, covering fields such as space materials science, microgravity fluid physics, and combustion science. In-orbit training for rendezvous and docking was also conducted.
China's Shenzhou-18 crew conducting in-orbit experiment. /China Media Group
During their six-month stay, the crew conducted China's first in-orbit aquatic ecological research project, which involved raising fish in space. They observed that the zebrafish exhibited abnormal directional behaviors in microgravity, such as swimming upside down, rotating and circling.
Scientists will later analyze the recovered water samples, fish eggs, and other specimens, along with videos of zebrafish movement in space, to study the effects of the space environment on vertebrate growth, development, and behavior. This research will also support studies on material cycling in closed ecological systems in space.
The in-orbit aquatic ecological research. /China Media Group
The crew performed two extravehicular activities (EVAs) in May and July, setting a new record for the longest single spacewalk by Chinese astronauts during their first EVA, which lasted for about 8.5 hours.