JIUQUAN, May 29 (Xinhua) -- China's Shenzhou-22 crewed spaceship undocked from the space station combination at 2:44 p.m. (Beijing Time) on Friday, and will commence the return mission of sending the Shenzhou-21 astronauts Zhang Lu, Wu Fei and Zhang Hongzhang back to Earth, according to the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA).

The spaceship is scheduled to return to the Dongfeng landing site in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region later.

The CMSA said that prior to the separation, the Shenzhou-21 crew, with the assistance of the ground staff, completed various tasks such as setting the status of the space station combination, processing and transmitting the experimental data, and transferring remaining supplies. The Shenzhou-21 crew also carried out handover work and exchanged in-orbit work experience with the Shenzhou-23 crew who entered the space station on May 25.

China launched the Shenzhou-21 spaceship on Oct. 31, 2025 to send the Shenzhou-21 crew to its space station for rotation with Shenzhou-20 crew. However, the Shenzhou-20 crew later found that Shenzhou-20 spaceship's return capsule viewport window suffered a suspected impact from space debris during its mission and was unfit for crew return mission.

On Nov. 14, 2025, the Shenzhou-20 crew returned safely aboard the Shenzhou-21 spacecraft. On Nov. 25, 2025, China launched the Shenzhou-22 spaceship to provide a return vessel for the Shenzhou-21 crew.