China Blasts New Satellites The Same Day Shenzhou 13 Astronauts Returned from Six-Month Space Stint

As China's president, Xi Jinping, intends to establish world-class rocket launch facilities. China successfully launched rockets from different space stations in less than six hours, capping up a busy day that included the successful landing of the country's longest astronaut mission to date.

The facility in Hainan, the country's southernmost island province, is one of four such locations.

China successfully launched a new satellite into orbit from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan Province, southwest China. At 8 p.m. (Beijing Time), the Zhongxing-6D satellite was launched by a Long March-3B carrier rocket and successfully entered the desired orbit.

It primarily provides users throughout China's territory and territorial waters, as well as the Asia Pacific area, with safe and dependable radio and television broadcast services. The Long March carrier rocket series had its 415th flight on this mission.

The Zhongxing 6D satellite is a special transmission satellite for radio and television programs created by the Fifth Academy of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation," officials with the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) said in a statement.

The satellite will replace China's older China Star 6A satellite and provide high-definition video, radio, and television broadcast services across the Soyuz satellite constellation. Source Google.

Both launches occurred on the eve of China's historic Shenzhou 13 astronaut return, which sent three astronauts back to Earth from the Tiangong space station's Tianhe core module. The landing, which took place at 9:56 a.m., was a success. Shenzhou 13 astronauts Zhai Zhigang, Wang Yaping, and Ye Guangfu completed a six-month mission to Tiangong on Saturday Beijing time (9:56 p.m. EDT on Apr. 15 or 0356 GMT on April 16).

On a deployment that included two spacewalks, featuring China's first by a female astronaut, along with more than 20 scientific experiment initiatives and educational engagement, the astronauts spent 182 days aboard the Tiangong core module Tianhe.

The China National Space Administration's mission control center in Beijing erupted in applause as all three astronauts radioed that they were fine after their long space trip.

China has unveiled its ambitions for space exploration over the next five years, which include bolstering its space infrastructure and creating a next-generation spacecraft capable of transporting people into orbit.