BEIJING (AP) — China’s Shenzhou-17 spacecraft returned to Earth Tuesday, carrying three astronauts who have completed a six-month mission aboard the country’s orbiting space station.
The three, Tang Hongbo, Tang Shengjie and Jiang Xinlin, landed at the Dongfeng site in north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in the Gobi desert shortly before 6:00 p.m. (1000 GMT). It comes roughly four days after the Shenzhou-18 mission docked with the station with their three-member replacement crew onboard.
China built its own space station after being excluded from the International Space Station, largely because of U.S. concerns over the Chinese military’s total control of the space program amid a sharpening competition in technology between the two geopolitical rivals. This year, the Chinese station is slated for two cargo spacecraft missions and two manned spaceflight missions.
China’s ambitious space program aims to put astronauts on the moon by 2030, as well as bring back samples from Mars around the same year and launch three lunar probe missions over the next four years.
The new crew is made up of Commander Ye Guangfu, 43, a veteran astronaut who took part in the Shenzhou-13 mission in 2021, and fighter pilots Li Cong, 34, and Li Guangsu, 36, who are spaceflight rookies.
They will spend about six months on the three modules of the space station, the Tiangong, which can accommodate up to six astronauts at a time. During their stay, they will conduct scientific tests, install space debris protection equipment, carry out payload experiments, and beam science classes to students on Earth.
China has also said that it eventually plans to offer access to its space station to foreign astronauts and space tourists. With the ISS nearing the end of its useful life, China could in future remain the only country or corporation to maintain a crewed station in orbit.
China conducted its first crewed space mission in 2003, becoming the third country after the former Soviet Union and the U.S. to put a person into space using its own resources. Tiangong was launched in 2021 and completed 18 months later.
The U.S. space program is believed to still hold a significant edge over China’s due to its spending, supply chains and capabilities. However, China has broken out in some areas, bringing samples back from the lunar surface for the first time in decades and landing a rover on the less explored far side of the moon.
The U.S. aims to put a crew back on the lunar surface by the end of 2025 as part of a renewed commitment to crewed missions, aided by private sector players such as SpaceX and Blue Origin.
In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, the capsule of Shenzhou-17 manned spaceship carrying astronauts Tang Hongbo, Tang Shengjie and Jiang Xinlin touches down at the Dongfeng landing site in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Tuesday, April 30, 2024. The return capsule of China's Shenzhou-17 manned spaceship landed back on Earth Tuesday with three astronauts who have completed a six-month mission aboard the country's orbiting space station. (Bei He/Xinhua via AP)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Eight days ago, the Minnesota Twins were baseball’s hottest team and winners of 17 of 20 games.
After Monday night’s 12-3 loss at the Washington Nationals, the same club was mired in a seven-game slide so miserable that it sparked a players-only meeting.
“It’s easy to be a fun guy to be around when things are going good and when everything you’re hitting is falling and you’re just winning games,” Twins shortstop and two-time All-Star Carlos Correa said. “But when the tough times come, that’s when you know who people are. And it's helpful to talk.”
Correa hit a two-run homer, the bright spot in another sluggish outing for an offense that has been the primary culprit, scoring only 12 runs during Minnesota’s free fall to within a game of the .500 mark.
Against soft-tossing Nats starter Mitchell Parker, manager Rocco Baldelli said the Twins (24-23) simply weren't reacting.
“The guy just stood out there and threw off-speed pitches for four innings, and we didn’t do anything about it,” Baldelli said. “We continued to kind of wave at them and look for fastballs. Which today, they weren’t coming. Especially for the first five, six innings. And in this stretch of games where we’ve been struggling, that’s been a common theme.”
Baldelli said he's held two or three postgame talks already during a year that also included an earlier five-game slide, and is hesitant to conduct more because “it starts to get drowned out.” He approved of the players’ decision.
“I don’t know what was said. I have no idea,” Baldelli said. “I think it was the right thing to do at the right time. And hopefully we get something out of it.”
In his sixth season in charge, he’s a little in awe of how quickly things have turned. Again.
“You start to forget some of the things that you’ve experienced when you flip it. I mean we’ve flipped the season completely around multiple times already,” Baldelli said. “I’ve seen a lot of streaky baseball, we all have. This is next-level stuff.”
Pablo López, Monday’s losing starter, expressed disappointment he couldn’t be the stopper but hoped the meeting would make a difference.
“Externalizing gives you the sense of relief,” López said. “When you say things out loud, when you hear things being said out loud, it puts things in perspective. So I think we said things that maybe we were thinking but weren’t saying out loud.”
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Minnesota Twins third baseman Jose Miranda throws to first to put out Washington Nationals' Joey Meneses during the eighth inning of a baseball game, Monday, May 20, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
Minnesota Twins' Byron Buxton starts his slide toward home on a double by teammate Willi Castro during the second inning of a baseball game against the Washington Nationals, Monday, May 20, 2024, in Washington. Buxton was tagged out at home by Nationals catcher Keibert Ruiz. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
Washington Nationals' Jacob Young, right, steals second against Minnesota Twins shortstop Carlos Correa, left, during the fifth inning of a baseball game, Monday, May 20, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
Minnesota Twins starting pitcher Pablo Lopez throws during the fourth inning of a baseball game against the Washington Nationals, Monday, May 20, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
