Two Chinese astronauts landed at the Dongfeng site in Inner Mongolia on Saturday aboard the Shenzhou-23 return capsule, according to the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA). They left their third crewmate aboard the Tiangong space station to continue China's first planned year-long mission. The agency said the pair were in good health after roughly six months in orbit.

The capsule undocked from Tiangong several hours before touchdown, CMSA said. The crew had completed a handover with the newly arrived Shenzhou-24 crew in the days before departure. Xinhua, the state news agency, reported that recovery teams reached the capsule shortly after landing and helped the astronauts out on the steppe.

The return was closely watched after the disruption of 2025. That November, suspected space debris cracked a window on the Shenzhou-20 spacecraft.

Its crew had to come home on a replacement vehicle, and Beijing launched an uncrewed Shenzhou-22 to keep a lifeboat docked at the station. CMSA officials said the Shenzhou-23 capsule had been inspected in orbit before undocking and showed no damage.

The astronaut who remained in orbit will spend about 12 months on Tiangong, according to the agency. That is the longest stay yet planned by China's human spaceflight programme.

CMSA has said the mission will give its doctors and engineers data on bone and muscle loss, radiation exposure and psychological strain over long-duration flight. Such data will feed into planning for crewed lunar missions.

Beijing aims to land astronauts on the Moon before 2030 using the Mengzhou spacecraft and the Long March 10 rocket, both of which are in testing. China is also expanding Tiangong's international role while the International Space Station heads towards retirement around 2030. That leaves China's outpost as a possible sole permanently crewed station in low Earth orbit within a few years.