Posted: Sun, Sep 28, 2008, 10:27 AM ET (1427 GMT)
China's third human spaceflight mission came to a successful conclusion Sunday when the Shenzhou 7 spacecraft safely landed in northern China. The Shenzhou 7 reentry capsule, carrying three astronauts, landed in Inner Mongolia at 5:38 am EDT (0938 GMT). The three crewmembers, Zhai Zhigang, Liu Boming, and Jing Haipeng, emerged from the capsule about 45 minutes later and were reported to be in good health. The landed ended a 68-hour mission highlighted by China's first EVA, a 15-minute spacewalk by Zhai. The Chinese government has not released formal plans for its next manned mission, but the next two Shenzhou missions are expected to be unmanned flights to test rendezvous and docking technology, and perhaps also create a rudimentary space lab for the next piloted mission.

Related Links:

•  Xinhua article
•  Spaceflight Now article
•  SPACE.com article
•  AP article
•  BBC article