Shenzhou-20 Crew Set to Return to Earth Today After Handover
China’s Shenzhou-20 crew is scheduled to return to Earth on Thursday, November 5, after completing its in-orbit handover with the Shenzhou-21 crew aboard the Tiangong space station. The three astronauts — Chen Dong, Chen Zhongrui and Wang Jie — have finished all their planned tasks and are set to land at the Dongfeng site in Inner Mongolia.
Handover Complete Aboard Tiangong
The two crews held a formal handover ceremony on Tuesday, during which the keys of the space station were transferred to the incoming Shenzhou-21 crew. According to the China Manned Space Agency, the Shenzhou-20 trio has completed every task assigned for the mission. The landing site and all supporting systems are now undergoing final preparations to welcome the astronauts back. The Shenzhou-21 mission arrived to relieve the crew, continuing China’s routine six-month crew rotation aboard Tiangong, which is normally staffed by teams of three.
The Dongfeng Landing and What Comes Next
The return capsule is scheduled to touch down at the Dongfeng landing site in north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, the same desert site used for previous crewed returns. Recovery teams, helicopters and medical staff are standard parts of the operation, with the crew undergoing health checks immediately after landing. The Shenzhou-20 mission is part of China’s steadily expanding space station programme, which has moved from construction to regular crewed operations, scientific experiments and technology tests in low Earth orbit.
Why the Mission Matters
Tiangong is the centrepiece of China’s independent crewed space programme, and each rotation keeps the station continuously inhabited while expanding its research output. The Shenzhou-20 crew’s work included station maintenance, scientific experiments and preparations for future missions. Their safe return would close another routine chapter for the programme and clear the way for the Shenzhou-21 crew’s own six-month stay, during which further experiments and possible spacewalks are expected.
China’s crewed programme has followed a steady rhythm since Tiangong’s construction was completed, with a new crew arriving roughly every six months and the outgoing crew handing over the station in orbit. Each rotation keeps the station continuously inhabited, which allows experiments to run for months at a time rather than in short visits. Research aboard the station spans life sciences, materials science and microgravity physics, alongside tests of the spacecraft, spacesuits and robotic systems that future missions will rely on. The programme’s next steps include further crew rotations, cargo resupply flights and continued expansion of its scientific work, as China builds on the experience gained from more than a dozen crewed missions to its own station.
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Sources: Xinhua, November 4, 2026.