Chinese astronauts return to Earth after longest crewed mission

Three Chinese astronauts on Saturday returned to Earth after completing the country's longest crewed space mission till now. The astronauts remained in space for 183 days.

While in orbit, the Shenzhou-13 mission astronauts took manual control in the Tianhe living quarters module for what state media called a "docking experiment" with the Tianzhou-2 cargo spacecraft.

The astronauts - Zhai Zhigang, Ye Guangfu and a female crew member Wang Yaping - were launched into space in October. They remained in space for 183 days and completed fifth of 11 missions needed to finish the space station by the end of the year.

Shenzhou-13 was the second of four planned crewed missions to complete construction of the space station, which began last April. Shenzhou-12 returned to Earth in September.

Going forward, China will launch two missions, Tianzhou-4 and Shenzhou-14. The former would be a cargo spacecraft while the latter would be a three-person mission, as per Shao Limin, deputy technology manager of Manned Spaceship System. Shao Limin was quoted by Chinese state media.

Barred by the United States from participating in the International Space Station (ISS) in orbit, China has spent the past decade developing technologies to build its own space station, the only one in the world other than the ISS.

China, which aims to become a space power by 2030, has successfully launched probes to explore Mars and became the first country to land a spacecraft on the far side of the Moon.