China Astronauts Return to Earth After Country's Longest Manned Mission in Space

Chinese astronauts Jing Haipeng and Chen Dong, who performed the country's longest-ever manned space mission that lasted more than a month on board of the Tiangong-2 space laboratory, returned safely to Earth on Friday, media reported.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Shenzhou-11 aircraft's return capsule landed safely at the expected point in central Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China's Xinhua news agency said.

"The success of this mission demonstrates that China has acquired the capability to support long stays in space by astronauts," Huang Weifen, a deputy chief designer with the Astronaut Center of China said, as cited by the media.

Shenzhou-11 mission was launched on October 17, and attached with Tiangong-2 space lab where the astronauts lived for a period of 30 days and performed a serious of scientific and medical experiments.