SHANGHAI, (Reuters) – Three Chinese astronauts returned home Saturday from 183 days spent in space. This was the longest-ever crewed mission by China to space.

After leaving the key module in China’s initial space station, nine hours later, astronauts successfully landed.

In orbit, Shenzhou-13 mission’s astronauts took command of Tianhe’s living quarters module to perform a “docking exercise” with Tianzhou-2.

After their October launch, Zhai Zhigang and Ye Guangfu, as well as Wang Yaping, completed the fifth mission to complete the station’s 11 remaining missions.

Shenzhou-13 was one of four crewed missions that were planned to finish construction on the space station. It began in April last year. Shenzhou-12 made it back to Earth on September 12.

China’s next two missions include Tianzhou-4, which is a cargo-spacecraft, as well as the Shenzhou-14 mission for three people, Shao Liin (deputy technology manager, Manned Spaceship System), was quoted in state media.

China was prevented by the United States of America from taking part in the International Space Station in orbit. Instead, it has spent the last decade building technologies for its own station. This is the only space station in the world that does not use the ISS.

China is aiming to be a space power in 2030. It has successfully launched space probes to Mars, and was the first country ever to land a spacecraft at the far end of the Moon.