They returned to Earth today Monday, three Chinese astronauts after a six-month stay at the space station Tiangong which means ‘Heavenly Palace’, part of China’s effort to be world leader in space exploration.

The parachute they used slowed their capsule’s nighttime descent in the remote region of Inner Mongolia, China.

In recent years, the country’s space program has brought back rocks from the moon and landed a rover on Mars. It aims to put a man on the moon by 2030, which would make China the second nation after the United States to do so.

The space station astronauts returned after being replaced by a crew of three last week for the last six-month assignment. The new team of one woman and two men will conduct experiments, spacewalks and install equipment to protect the station from space debris.

A space agency official said last April that Tiangong had maneuvered several times to avoid debris and had partially lost power when the solar wing’s power cables were hit by debris, according to a report by the official Xinhua news agency. .

The Tiangong space station, completed two years ago, is orbiting the earth.

Only Chinese astronauts have been to the space station so far, but a space agency spokesman said last week that China is in discussions to select and train astronauts from other nations to join the missions, Xinhua reported.