The Shenzhou XXII spacecraft departed China's Tiangong space station on Friday afternoon, carrying three Chinese astronauts on a journey back to Earth, according to the China Manned Space Agency.

The agency said in a brief statement that the spacecraft left the station's core module at 2:44 pm and started to orbit Earth on its own.

Before their departure, the Shenzhou XXI flight astronauts — mission commander Senior Colonel Zhang Lu, spaceflight engineer Major Wu Fei and payload specialist Zhang Hongzhang — worked with ground support personnel to transmit some experimental data back to ground control, arranged materials inside the station, and moved some samples and their personal belongings to the return capsule, the agency said.

Sources close to the program said the spacecraft is to land on Friday evening at the Dongfeng Landing Site in the Badain Jaran Desert in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region.

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Zhang Lu and his crewmates handed over control of the Chinese space station on Thursday morning to their successors in the Shenzhou XXIII mission, who arrived on Monday.

The concluding flight is Zhang Lu's second space mission, and is the maiden one for Wu Fei and Zhang Hongzhang.

By now, the Shenzhou XXI mission has lasted for 210 days, marking the longest single space journey Chinese astronauts have ever made. Through his two spaceflights, Zhang Lu has made seven spacewalks, becoming the record holder in this regard.