Medical quarantine over for Shenzhou X astronauts

Shenzhou X astronauts Wang Yaping, Nie Haisheng and Zhang Xiaoguang salute at a news conference at Beijing Aerospace City on July 11, 2013, after they were released Thursday from their medical quarantine and given the medical all clear. During its 15-day journey in space starting June 11, Shenzhou X docked with the orbiting space lab Tiangong-1 twice, once through automatic operation and the other manual. The astronauts spent 12 days in Tiangong-1, where they conducted space medical experiments, technical tests and delivered a lecture to students on Earth about basic physics principles.[Photo/icpress.cn]

BEIJING - The three astronauts of China's Shenzhou X mission appeared in public on Thursday after they completed their medical quarantine.

At the Astronaut Center of China in a northwest suburb of Beijing, the astronauts met the media and shared their experiences of the 15-day trip, the country's longest manned space mission so far.

Nie Haisheng, commander of the crew and a second-time space traveler, Wang Yaping, the mission's only female astronaut, and Zhang Xiaoguang are healthy both mentally and physically, medical quarantine officials said.

They have all returned to the weight they were before the journey, according to the officials.

Shenzhou X docked with the orbiting space lab Tiangong-1 twice, once through automatic operation and the other manually, during the journey, which was China's first application-oriented space flight.

The astronauts spent 12 days in Tiangong-1, where they conducted space medical experiments, technical tests and delivered a lecture to students on Earth about basic physics principles.

After they safely re-entered the atmosphere and landed on June 26, the crew were quarantined in order to re-adapt to Earth's gravity and to recover.

Reflecting on his two space missions, Nie said that Chinese astronauts are fully able to work and live in outer space.

According to Deng Yibing, director of China Astronaut Research and Training Center, the astronauts will be in rehabilitation from mid July to the end of the month. Their health will be monitored for another three months to ensure a complete recovery.

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