China's Shenzhou XVIII spaceship separates from space station combination

The Shenzhou XVIII mission crew will soon return to Earth after a six-month mission, according to the China Manned Space Agency.

The Shenzhou XVIII spacecraft, carrying the three outgoing astronauts — mission commander Senior Colonel Ye Guangfu and crew members Lieutenant Colonel Li Cong and Lieutenant Colonel Li Guangsu — left the Tiangong space station at 4:12 pm Sunday and has been on a return journey, the agency said in a news release.

In the next six months, the Tiangong station will be manned by the Shenzhou XIX trio, headed by Senior Colonel Cai Xuzhe, who arrived at the colossal flying outpost on Wednesday afternoon.

Before setting out on their return trip, Ye's team handed over their work to the new crew, transmitted scientific experimental data back to Earth and sorted and transferred materials between the station and their spaceship.

In the following hours, the Shenzhou XVIII vessel will re-enter the atmosphere under guidance from ground controllers and will land on the Dongfeng Landing Site in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, according to the agency.

They will then be flown back to Beijing to undergo a period of quarantine and recuperation programs, which are standard procedures for Chinese astronauts returning from space.

The Shenzhou XVIII astronauts, who are the seventh crew to inhabit the Tiangong space station, took over the space station in late April from their peers in the Shenzhou XVII mission.

During their orbital stay, they conducted two spacewalks to mount and fine-tune equipment outside the Tiangong, and carried out a lot of scientific and technological tasks.

It has been the second space journey for Ye and the first for his two teammates.