Shenzhou XIX crew returns safely to 'beautiful, blue' Earth

After several days of handover work, the crew took over the massive outpost in early November from their peers of the Shenzhou XVIII mission.

They spent 183 days in a low-Earth orbit about 400 kilometers above Earth, completing many scientific and technological tasks as well as three spacewalks, the first of which set a world record for the longest spacewalk.

With a total of five spacewalks to his credit, Cai now holds the record among Chinese astronauts.

Wang was the third Chinese woman to go to space, after Liu Yang and Wang Yaping, and the first female spaceflight engineer. Before her, Zhu Yangzhu, a male astronaut who took part in the Shenzhou XVI mission, was China's first spaceflight engineer.

Wang is also the only woman in the country's third-generation group of astronauts.

In the next six months, the space station will be manned by the three Shenzhou XX astronauts, headed by Senior Colonel Chen Dong, who arrived at the orbiting outpost on Friday.