China successfully wrapped up its sixth, and longest, manned space mission with the return to Earth of the Shenzhou-11 capsule in Inner Mongolia on 18th November. The two Chinese astronauts — Jing Haipeng (on his third mission) and Chen Dong — thus completed a 33-day mission, including 30 days on board the Tiangong 2 spacelab, which has been in orbit since 15th September.

Chinese space officials said the mission was a total success.

No further manned missions are planned to Tiangong 2, though the Tianzhou 1 robotic supply vessel is scheduled to perform a remote docking mission in April 2017. The next Chinese manned spaceflight is planned for 2018, once assembly of the larger Tiangong 3 orbital facility has started.