An inspiring mission

The moment the Shenzhou IX capsule landed safely in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region on Friday morning, China moved closer toward its goal of establishing a permanent space station.

The Shenzhou IX mission has accomplished a series of breakthroughs for the country's space program - Liu Yang was China's first female astronaut, the three astronauts on the mission stayed in space for 13 days, and they completed a successful manual docking with the orbiting Tiangong-1 space module - which points to the country's overall economic strength and the progress of the country's overall science and technology.

China's economic growth over the past three decades has laid a solid foundation for the steady progress of the nation's space program - from unmanned to manned spacecraft, from carrying one astronaut to carrying three astronauts and docking a manned spacecraft with the orbiting space laboratory.