Chinese astronauts land on Shenzhou 14 spacecraft

Three Chinese astronauts landed back on Sunday December 4 on board the re-entry capsule of the Shenzhou 14 spacecraft, state broadcaster CCTV reported, bringing to an end a six-month mission on China's space station.

Three astronauts - Commander Chen Dong and teammates Liu Yang and Cai Xuzhe - who had been overseeing the final, pivotal period of construction at the space station, which was completed in November, all said they were feeling well after landing in audio aired on CCTV.

The capsule arrived at the Dongfeng site in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region at 8.09 pm, with staff from the space agency declaring the entire mission, which began on Jun 5, a complete success, as reported by CCTV.

CCTV reported that staff at the landing site carried out the exhausted crew one by one and by just after 9 pm all three had safely exited the capsule.

A new crew of three fellow Chinese astronauts arrived at the space station aboard the Shenzhou 15 to take over from them on Wednesday.

The space station is a significant milestone in China's three-decade long manned space programme, first approved in 1992. It also marks the beginning of permanent Chinese habitation in space.

In April of last year, the construction of the station began with the launch of the first and largest of its three modules, Tianhe, which are the living quarters of visiting astronauts.