Chinese astronauts return to Earth after 6 months on space station

BEIJING (AP) — A Chinese spacecraft has returned to Earth with three astronauts who lived for six months on the country’s space station. The craft and three astronauts landed in the Gobi Desert on Tuesday evening. The spacecraft carrying a replacement crew had arrived at the orbiting space station about four days earlier. China plans two crewed missions and two cargo missions to the the space station this year. China also aims to put astronauts on the moon by 2030 and bring back samples from Mars around the same year. China built its own space station after being excluded from the International Space Station, largely because of U.S. concerns over the Chinese military’s total control of the space program.