Three Chinese astronauts returned to Earth on Saturday (April 17) after spending 173 days in space. The country’s state broadcaster CCTV reported.

After spending six months at the Tiangong Space Center in China, the three astronauts landed in a small capsule just before 10 a.m. local time in Beijing on Saturday. Of the three astronauts, two were men and one was a woman. These are Zhai Zhigang, Ye Guangfu and Wang Yaping.

The three astronauts took off from China’s northwestern Gobi Desert in October last year for the Shenzhou-13 spaceflight.

Wang became the first Chinese woman to walk in space. He and his colleague Zhai added some equipment to the space center. These three astronauts carried out a number of scientific experiments in addition to walking twice in space.

The Chinese space center Tiangong is expected to operate in space for at least 10 years. These three astronauts are in Tiangang as the second group.

Earlier last year, Shenzhou-12 went into space and stayed there for 92 days. But from now on, Chinese astronauts will stay at their space center for six months, CCTV reported.