From one-day flight to year-long stay: China's astronauts push boundaries of space residency

At 8:11 p.m. on May 29, the return capsule carrying the Shenzhou-21 crew touched down at the Dongfeng landing site in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Astronauts Zhang Lu, Wu Fei and Zhang Hongzhang safely returned to Earth after completing a record 210-day mission aboard China's space station.

Since Yang Liwei completed China's first crewed spaceflight aboard Shenzhou-5 in 2003, the country's manned space program has evolved from a single astronaut's one-day mission to a year-long space residency test scheduled to begin this year. Over the past two decades, China has continuously rewritten the records for in-orbit duration.

On October 15, 2003, the Shenzhou-5 spacecraft blasted off with Yang on board, marking China's first crewed spaceflight. After spending 21 hours and 23 minutes in orbit and circling Earth 14 times, Yang returned safely, making China the third country in the world to independently master manned spaceflight technology.

The subsequent Shenzhou-6 and Shenzhou-7 missions achieved a series of breakthroughs, including multi-astronaut, multi-day spaceflight and China's first spacewalk. These milestones advanced the country's manned space program from verification flights to application-focused missions.

From Shenzhou-9 to Shenzhou-11, Chinese astronauts extended their stays in orbit to more than 10 days, marking the beginning of medium-term space residency. During the Shenzhou-9 mission, Liu Yang became China's first woman in space. The Shenzhou-10 crew delivered the country's first lecture from orbit, bringing space science directly into classrooms.

A major leap came with Shenzhou-11 in 2016, when astronauts Jing Haipeng and Chen Dong spent 33 days in space, setting what was then a new national record. During the mission, they conducted a wide range of cutting-edge space science and application tasks. These missions enabled China to master key technologies, including rendezvous and docking, as well as in-orbit propellant refueling, laying the foundation for the construction of its space station.

On April 29, 2021, the Tianhe core module, the first component of China's space station, was sent into orbit, ushering in the full implementation stage of the space station's construction. In June that year, the Shenzhou-12 crew members became the first astronauts to live and work aboard the station, completing a 93-day mission and achieving China's first three-month stay in orbit.

The Shenzhou-13 crew, consisting of Zhai Zhigang, Wang Yaping and Ye Guangfu, pushed the record even further. They spent six months in space and completed all tasks in the key technology verification stage of the space station program.

Beginning with Shenzhou-14, six-month missions became the norm. Regular crew rotations were realized and China's space station entered a phase of routine operation, yielding a large number of scientific achievements.

During the Shenzhou-20 mission, astronauts Chen Dong, Chen Zhongrui and Wang Jie stayed in orbit for 204 days. Chen Dong became the first Chinese astronaut with a cumulative in-orbit duration exceeding 400 days.

The latest milestone came with the Shenzhou-21 mission. The trio of astronauts spent 210 days in orbit, setting a new record for the longest single mission by a Chinese astronaut crew.

China is now preparing for a more ambitious goal. A member of the newly launched Shenzhou-23 crew is expected to remain aboard the space station for one year.

From the 21-hour journey of Shenzhou-5 to the year-long mission, Chinese engineers and astronauts continue to push the limits of human endurance in space, laying the groundwork for future deep-space exploration and a sustained human presence in space.