Hu praises 'excellent performance' of crew_美文

Hu praises 'excellent performance' of crew

The local forecast predicted cloudy skies at the landing site on Friday.

Zhang Haidong, commander at the landing site, said drills have been conducted to prepare for the astronauts' return, with the goal of spotting the spacecraft's re-entry module in the shortest amount of time.

The last drill before their return is scheduled for Wednesday.

The Shenzhou IX spacecraft carrying the three astronauts blasted off on June 16 from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Northwest China.

On Sunday, the three Chinese astronauts completed a manual docking between the spacecraft and the orbiting Tiangong-1 space lab module.

The success of the procedure shows that China has grasped space rendezvous and docking technologies and the country is fully capable of transporting humans and cargo to an orbiter in space, which is essential for the country's plan to build a space station around 2020.

About the broadcaster:

Nelly Min is an editor at China Daily with more than 10 years of experience as a newspaper editor and photographer. She has worked at major newspapers in the U.S., including the Los Angeles Times and the Detroit Free Press. She is also fluent in Korean.