Chinese astronauts return to Earth after 13-day mission to module

June 24, 2012: In this image made off the monitor screen at the Beijing Aerospace Flight Control Center and released by China's Xinhua News Agency, China's astronauts Jing Haipeng, center, Liu Wang, left, and Liu Yang celebrate inside the Shenzhou-9 manned spacecraft after the success of the manual docking between the spacecraft and Tiangong-1 lab module. (AP/Beijing Aerospace Control Center via Xinhua)

June 29, 2012: In this photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency, members of the search team approach the re-entry capsule of China's Shenzhou 9 spacecraft in Siziwang Banner of north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. (AP/Xinhua)

BEIJING – A Chinese space capsule with three astronauts aboard returned to Earth on Friday from a 13-day mission to an orbiting module that is a prototype for a future permanent station.

The crew of the Shenzhou 9 parachuted to a landing on the grasslands of the country's sprawling Inner Mongolia region at about 10 a.m. (0200 GMT). China declared the mission to the Tiangong 1 module a major stride ahead for the country's ambitious space program.

The crew included China's first female astronaut, 33-year-old Liu Yang, who was joined by mission commander and veteran astronaut Jing Haipeng, 45, and crew mate Liu Wang, 43. All are highly experienced air force pilots.

The mission had included both remote control and piloted dockings with the module and extensive medical monitoring of the astronauts as part of preparations for manning a permanent space station.

China's next goals include another manned mission to the module originally scheduled for later this year but which may be delayed depending on an evaluation of the Shenzhou 9 mission and the condition of the Tiangong 1. China has been extremely cautious and methodical in its manned missions, with more than three years passing since the previous one, and all four have been relatively problem-free.

Tiangong 1 is due to be retired in a few years and replaced with a permanent space station around 2020 that will weigh about 60 tons, slightly smaller than NASA's Skylab of the 1970s and about one-sixth the size of the 16-nation International Space Station that China was barred from participating in, largely on objections from the United States. Possible future missions could include sending a rover to the moon, possibly followed by a manned lunar mission.

Launched June 16 from the Jiuquan center on the edge of the Gobi desert in northern China, Shenzhou 9 is the latest success for China's manned space program that launched its first astronaut, Yang Liwei, into space in 2003, making China just the third nation after Russia and the U.S. to achieve that feat. China would also be the third country after the United States and Russia to send independently maintained space stations into orbit.

Earlier in the week, a spokeswoman said China spent 20 billion yuan ($3.1 billion) on its space program between 1992 and 2005 -- a rare admission for a program with close links to the secretive military. By the time the next Shenzhou mission is completed, Beijing will have spent an additional 19 billion yuan ($3 billion), the spokeswoman said.