China's latest manned spacecraft landed safely back on Earth this morning after a 15-day mission to an experimental space lab, the country's latest step towards the development of a space station, state media reported.

The re-entry capsule of the Shenzhou 10 spacecraft, with three astronauts onboard, touched down at around 8:07 a.m. local time at a remote site in northern China's Inner Mongolia region, images broadcast live by state television CCTV showed.

Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli and engineers at the Beijing Aerospace Control Center watched the live broadcast of the landing in Beijing, CCTV reported.

The Shenzhou 10 spacecraft was launched from a remote site in the Gobi desert in China's far west on June 11, and carried out successful automatic and manual dockings with the Tiangong (Heavenly Palace) 1, a trial space laboratory module on June 13 and June 23 respectively.

It is China's fifth manned space mission since 2003.

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