China has completed its longest crewed space mission. Three astronauts returned to Earth on September 17, 2021, after spending 90 days in space. 

The astronauts, Nie Haisheng, Liu Boming and Tang Honbo, left for China’s unfinished space station on June 17, 2021. They landed in the Gobi desert in Inner Mongolia at around 13:34 local time (05:34 GMT) on September 17, state media reported.

The astronauts spent the mission in the Tianhe module, the living quarters of the future Chinese Space Station. 

The new space station, called Tiangong, forms a major part of China’s space ambitions. The space station is due to be fully operational by 2022. 

While there, the astronauts carried out various tasks, including a spacewalk on July 4, 2021, which involved the astronauts working for seven hours outside the space station.

 

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Chinese astronauts perform first spacewalk outside new space station
Chinese astronauts performed the country's first spacewalk outside of their new Tiangong space station.