On April 16, the return module of Shenzhou 13 manned spacecraft will land at the Dongfeng landing site.

At 9:56 on April 16, the return module of Shenzhou 13 spacecraft successfully landed at the Dongfeng landing site. It took only more than nine hours to separate from the space station’s space and core module and return to the ground. China’s manned spacecraft adopted the rapid return mode “home” for the first time.

Peng Huakang, chief designer of manned spacecraft system of the Fifth Academy of Aerospace Science and technology group and technical director of Shenzhou 13 recovery test team, introduced that after adopting the rapid return mode, not only the astronauts’ return speed is increased, but also the overall comfort is further improved.

The fast return mode is mainly realized by reducing the number of spacecraft flying around the earth in orbit. After the manned spacecraft leaves the space station, it needs to fly around the earth for several times, and then choose a plane to enter the atmosphere and return to the earth.

“Shenzhou 12 manned spacecraft adopts the 11 circle return mode, and it takes about 1.5 hours to fly around the earth.” According to Peng Huakang, on the basis of keeping the main items unchanged, Shenzhou 13 mission compressed and reasonably cut some flight events in the return process, and reduced the flight events previously required to be completed within 11 circles to 5 circles.

The shortening of return time puts forward higher requirements for the rapid response ability of the land field system. Bian Hancheng, a researcher of Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center and deputy chief designer of the landing site system of manned space engineering, said: “for the Shenzhou 13 manned spacecraft using the five circle rapid return mode, the Dongfeng landing site has repeatedly deduced the action plans of search and rescue forces under different conditions, so as to ensure that there are plans under normal conditions, plans under abnormal conditions and Countermeasures under extreme conditions.”

It is understood that the rapid return mode will become the norm for China’s future manned missions.

According to Xinhua news agency