China's Shenzhou-14 spacecraft crew lands safely, arrives in Beijing

According to information from the China Manned Space Administration (CMSA), the three astronauts of the Shenzhou-14 spacecraft arrived in Beijing early on the morning of December 5 and began a period of quarantine recovery, medical examination and comprehensive health assessment after returning to Earth.

Shenzhou-14 spacecraft lands at Dongfeng landing site. Photo: Xinhua News Agency.

Previously, the agency also announced that the Shenzhou-14 mission was a success, after the spacecraft landed at the Dongfeng landing site in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, northern China at 20:09 on December 4 local time.

Before returning to Earth, the Shenzhou-14 crew conducted a handover with the Shenzhou-15 crew that had just been launched on the night of November 29. This was the first time China had performed a crew change in space, paving the way for future periodic crew changes with six astronauts on board the space station at the same time.

This is also the first return of the crew after the Chinese space station completed the assembly of the T-shaped basic structure, and the first time the return took place on a winter evening at the Dongfeng landing site.

The Shenzhou-14 spacecraft was launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on June 5. During the 183 days in space, the three astronauts completed the construction of the space station with three basic modules, including the Tianhe core module and two laboratories, Wentian and Mengtian. Shenzhou-15 is the final mission in China's Tiangong space station construction program./.