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BEIJING (AP) — Three Chinese astronauts returned to Earth Friday after 90 days aboard their country’s first space station. ChineseLongest mission ever.

Nie Haisheng, Liu Boming, and Tang Hongbo landed on the Shenzhou-12 spacecraft just after 13:30 (0530 GMT) after leaving the space station on Thursday morning.

State broadcaster CCTV showed footage of the spacecraft parachuting into the Gobi Desert, where it was greeted by helicopters and all-terrain vehicles. Minutes later, a team of technicians began to unscrew the undamaged capsule.

The three astronauts emerged about 30 minutes later and, after three months in a weightless environment, sat in recliners just outside the capsule to give them time to readjust to Earth’s gravity. The trio would fly to Beijing on Friday.

“With Chinese“I firmly believe that with the strengthening power and the rising level of Chinese technology, there will be more astronauts who will set new records,” mission commander Nie told CCTV.

After launch on June 17, the three astronauts went on two spacewalks, deployed a 10-metre (33-foot) mechanical arm, and video-conferred with Communist Party leader Xi Jinping.

Although few details have been made public ChineseThe military running the space program is expected to bring the astronaut trio to the station on 90-day missions to make it fully functional within the next two years.

The government did not reveal the names of the next batch of astronauts or the launch date of Shenzhou-13.

Chinese It has sent 14 astronauts into space since 2003, when it became the third country to do so on its own, after the former Soviet Union and the United States.

Chinese‘s space program progressed at a measured pace, largely avoiding many of the problems that characterized the intensely competitive US and Russian programs in the early days of spaceflight.

This has made it a source of immense national pride, complementing the country’s rise to economic, technological, military and diplomatic importance in recent years under the strict rule of the Communist Party and current leader Xi Jinping.

Chinese It began its own space station program in the 1990s after being removed from the International Space Station, largely due to US objections to the secrecy and military support of the Chinese space program.

Chinese It simultaneously advanced uncrewed missions by deploying a rover on the little-explored far side of the Moon, and in December the Chang’e 5 probe returned Moon rocks to Earth for the first time since the 1970s.

Chinese Also this year, the Tianwen-1 space probe landed on Mars, as its accompanying Zhurong rover went out to look for evidence of life.

Another program calls for collecting samples from an asteroid, an area where Japan’s rival space program has made late progress.

Chinese It also plans to send another mission to bring back lunar samples in 2024 and is building a possible crewed mission to the moon and ultimately a scientific foundation there, although no timeline has been proposed for such projects. A top-secret spaceplane is also reportedly in development.