In China it was morning when the Shenzhou 10 spacecraft landed in Inner Mongolia. The three crew members, Zhang Xiaoguang, Nie Haisheng and Wang Yaping, were assisted by the ground staff and are in good physical condition. Their mission started on June 11, so it was the longest Chinese manned mission.

The Chinese media have already reported a statement by Zhang Youxia, commander-in-chief of China’s manned space program, who called the Shenzhou 10 mission a complete success. At the Beijing Aerospace Control Center, watching on the screens the landing of the Shenzhou 10 spacecraft there was also Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli.

The presence of high authorities is no surprise given the importance of the space program for the Chinese propaganda, both at home and abroad. Not surprisingly, Zhang delivered a short congratulations speech on behalf of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, the State Council and the Central Military Commission. In short, he made it clear who’s in charge in China and who gets the credit for this success.

Beyond the propaganda, there’s no doubt that the Shenzhou 10 mission was a success. The previous mission, Shenzhou 9, was used to experiment certain technologies that have been refined and in the last two weeks it’s been confirmed that they work properly. In fact, China has again shown it’s the third nation after the U.S.A. and Russia to have the skills necessary to perform space maneuvers and docking after the success of its exercises of automatic and manual docking with the Tiangong 1 space module.

For 12 days, the Chinese astronauts have also carried out various medical experiments and technical tests on the Tiangong 1 module and a few days ago astronaut Wang Yaping gave a lesson on the effects of microgravity followed live in Chinese schools. Obviously, the Chinese don’t tell everything they’ve done during those days but it’s certainly a step forward towards the construction of their space station.

The end of the Shenzhou 10 mission marks the end of an important experimental stage for the Chinese space program. The next phase should start with the launch of the Tiangong 2 space module by 2015. It will be used to test even more advanced technologies for life support and supplies management.

If the Chinese space program goes on with those successes, in 2020 the Chinese space station will be active. In the same year the International Space Station may be decommissione and noone knows what’s the future for Westerners space programs. Do we really want to leave the control of space to China?

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