Shenzhou 11

Shenzhou 11 was China's sixth crewed spaceflight and the crewed visit to the Tiangong-2 space laboratory. The spacecraft launched from Jiuquan on October 17, 2016 Beijing time, October 16 UTC, with Jing Haipeng as commander and Chen Dong as operator. After two days of independent flight, Shenzhou 11 docked with Tiangong-2 for a 30-day medium-duration stay, the longest Chinese crewed mission to that point. Jing and Chen carried out space-science, medical, applied-technology, on-orbit maintenance, and outreach work while validating procedures for longer operations aboard a Chinese orbital laboratory. The mission returned safely on November 18, 2016 and helped prepare the laboratory for later Tianzhou 1 cargo and refueling demonstrations.