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![[Xinhua]](http://thebricspost.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Shenzhou-101-300x206.jpg)
Astronaut Yang Liwei getting out of the re-entry capsule of China’s Shenzhou-5 spacecraft [Xinhua]
The return capsule carrying two male and one female astronaut touched down at 8:07 a.m. local time at the designated area in north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.
Shenzhou-10, China’s fifth manned spacecraft, took off from the Jiuquan launch centre in the northwestern province of Gansu on June 11.
Zhang Youxia, commander-in-chief of China’s manned space programme, said the Shenzhou-10 mission was a “complete success”.
This was China’s longest manned space mission and the country is planning to build a permanent manned space station by 2020.
During their mission in space the astronauts docked twice with the Tiangong-1 space station, which had been in orbit since September 2011.
The Shenzhou-10 is a shuttle craft able to transport astronauts and supplies to orbiting modules.
The mission is designed to test docking and astronaut support technologies, as well as capabilities for the construction of a space platform.
Wang Zhaoyao, director of China’s manned space programme office, said the country plans to put in orbit an experimental core module of a space station around 2018 and complete the construction of a manned space station by 2020.
China’s first manned flight into space was in October 2003 aboard the Shenzhou-5.
Source: Agencies
