China’s space station assembled, Shenzhou-14 crew returns to Earth with 2 firsts
- Astronauts end their six-month mission on Tiangong with a landmark handover on the orbiter
- Space agency plans to launch two crewed space missions each year for the next decade

The Shenzhou-14 crew touched down at the Dongfeng landing site in north China’s Inner Mongolia autonomous region at 8.09pm, the CMSA said, about nine hours after their spacecraft separated from the space station.
It was the first landing at night in winter for China’s manned space programme, adding to the difficulty for search crews on the ground, Bian Hancheng, deputy chief designer of the landing site system for the programme, told China Youth Daily.
He added that the ground team had been prepared for the extreme conditions, as well as the possibility of the capsule landing upside down or damage to the spacecraft.
Quoting medical workers at the scene, People’s Daily reported that the astronauts were in good health. They had all emerged from the return capsule by about 9pm.
The crew – Chen Dong, Liu Yang and Cai Xuzhe – lived and worked on the Tiangong complex for 183 days on a mission to complete assembly of the permanent orbiting space station.