First crew of space station recovering well

Nie and his crew members were the first inhabitants of China's new space station.

They were followed by the three-astronaut crew of Shenzhou XIII, which was launched in October.

Shenzhou XII was China's seventh manned space mission.

The space station currently comprises the Tianhe core module, which was launched in April. Two more modules and two more manned missions are scheduled to dock with the Tiangong station next year.

Nie has flown in three manned missions and is the first Chinese astronaut to have stayed in space for more than 100 days.

He said each of the three missions brought him a new experience and he has experienced increasing comfort and reliability, more space for activities and a wider variety of food during each stay in space.

"This all thanks to the hard work of all space science and technology workers," he said.

Nie said the three crew members had started to perform some technical recovery training to prepare for future missions and will continue to learn more about the space station in case they have the chance to visit it again.