Chinese spacecraft Shenzhou-14 returns to Earth

The Shenzhou-14 spacecraft separated from the Tiangong (Heavenly Palace) orbital station at 11:01 Beijing time (3:01 GMT) on December 4 to return to Earth at about 20:09 local time (12:09 GMT).

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China's manned spacecraft Shenzhou-14 with three taikonauts on board successfully landed at the Dongfeng landing pad in north China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region, reported 'CGTN' television network.

Taikonauts Chen Dong, Cai Xuzhe and Liu Yang, the first Chinese woman to go into space a decade ago, arrived at the orbiting station on June 5, 2022 and spent a total of 183 days in orbit.

On Dec. 2, after successfully completing their mission, they handed over control of the Tiangong station to members of the Shenshou-15 expedition, the first relief crew that will remain working on board until next May. Fei Junlong, Deng Qingming and Zhang Lu will now oversee the final construction phase of the Chinese space station.

Last October 31, China sent into space the Mengtian laboratory module, the third and last component of Tiangong, the orbital station also includes the central capsule, Tianhe, launched in April 2021, and another laboratory module, Wentian, which arrived at the end of last July. In the future, the Xuntian space telescope will also be added to the station.

The orbital complex, with a habitable space of 110 cubic meters for three astronauts (six during the crew changeover), will become fully operational in 2022 and is expected to have a useful life of 15 years.