JIUQUAN, April 24 (Xinhua) -- The Shenzhou-17 crew sent greetings to mark Space Day of China on Wednesday via video from the country's space station orbiting about 400 km above Earth, wishing the motherland and its space industry prosperity.
The crew members Tang Hongbo, Tang Shengjie and Jiang Xinlin have stayed in space for more than five months and are scheduled to return to the Dongfeng landing site in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region on April 30.
"The same day 54 years ago, China's first artificial Earth satellite was successfully launched, the music of "The East is Red" echoed across the world, sounding the clarion call for the Chinese people to explore the vast space," said Tang Hongbo, the crew commander.
With a spirit of self-confidence and self-reliance, generations of people dedicated to China's space industry have made continuous efforts to realize the Chinese nation's thousand-year dream of flying into space, said Tang Shengjie.
Jiang said they paid tribute to the older generation who had pioneered the great cause of China's space industry, to those who had carried on with the cause in the new era, and to all the heroes who contributed to the space industry.
During their mission, the Shenzhou-17 crew have carried out 84 in-orbit tests and space application experiments, and generated more than 200 samples, involving space life science and biotechnology, space medicine, space materials science and other fields.
April 24 has been Space Day of China since 2016. The date marks the launch of China's first satellite "Dongfanghong-1" into space in 1970. ■
