Chinese astronauts return to Earth

A Chinese space capsule with three astronauts aboard returned to Earth from a 13-day mission to an orbiting module that is a prototype for a future permanent station.

The crew of the Shenzhou 9 included China's first female astronaut, 33-year-old Liu Yang, who was joined by mission commander and veteran astronaut Jing Haipeng, 45, and crew mate Liu Wang, 43. All are highly experienced air force pilots.

China declared the mission to the Tiangong 1 module a major stride ahead for the country's ambitious space program. It had included both remote control and piloted dockings with the module and extensive medical monitoring of the astronauts as part of preparations for manning a permanent space station.

Tiangong 1 is due to be retired in a few years and replaced with a permanent space station around 2020 that will weigh about 60 tons, slightly smaller than NASA's Skylab of the 1970s and about one-sixth the size of the 16-nation International Space Station that China was barred from participating in, largely on objections from the United States.

Possible future missions could include sending a rover to the moon, possibly followed by a manned lunar mission.

China has reportedly spent $3.1 billion on its space program between 1992 and 2005. By the time the next Shenzhou mission is completed, Beijing will have spent an additional $3 billion.