2016年CRI Inner Mongolia ready for return of Shenzhou 11

It's been a beautiful Thursday in this vast grassland 1 area in the Siziwang Banner, which surrounds the city of Ulanqab in Inner Mongolia. 

Hours before China's two astronauts Jing Haipeng and Chen Dong are scheduled to return, reporters had a chance to catch up with members of the ground team under beautiful, sunny conditions.

Temperatures today have hit 12-degrees.

Wang Hongjun with the local weather observatory 2 says weather conditions are expected to remain ideal for Shenzhou-11's re-entry.

"At this point, the weather conditions look more optimistic for us than they did yesterday. But it all depends on whether the conditions are also right on paper before the astronauts can conduct a re-entry."

During their last month aboard the Tiangong-2, Jing Haipeng and Chen Dong have carried out a range of scientific experiments, testing out technology required for a large, permanently 3 crewed space station, which is expected to be set up sometime in the next 4-years. 

Staff on the ground here in Inner Mongolia are now in their final preparations for the two astronauts' return.

This is a location where all of China's previous manned space missions have come to a successful conclusion.

But different from previous re-entries and landings, Li Junzhi, vice 4 commander of the Command Center at the main landing field, says his team is preparing for some new tasks this time.

"First of all, this is the first time our astronauts have spent over a month in space. We've also adopted some higher standard for our vessel 5 research and recovery. They've spent longer time in zero-gravity condition, thus the possibility for them to experience abnormal physical conditions will be larger. Secondly 6, this is the first time we are on a landing mission in the winter time. Temperature in the landing area is relatively 7 low and we need to protect the astronauts from exposure to that."

Locating and recovering the spacecraft isn't a simple task, as delays of just seconds in orbit can potentially put a re-entering spacecraft off its intended landing area by dozens of kilometers.

Li Lei is in-charge of the squad 8 which will eventually locate Shenzhou-11 once it touches back down. 

"We've had a few helicopters refitted for just such an occasion. We now have 8 helicopters carrying search and communication equipment with us. We've also carried out aerial reconnaissance of the landing field and now have a clear idea of the landscape in this area. There are some areas in this vicinity where we've had to practice for unanticipated landing issues."

Unlike NASA's now mothballed space shuttles, China's re-entry modules 9 can't adjust their heading once they enter the atmosphere.

This makes the timing 10 of the re-entry critical, and more challenging, as crews also have to factor in wind conditions in the upper atmosphere where the parachutes will deploy 11 to eventually bring the crew back down safely.