Three Chinese astronauts have returned to Earth after six months at the Tiangong space station, with state media hailing the "success" of the Shenzhou-19 mission, a key step toward Beijing's goal of landing on the moon.

The Asian giant has invested billions of euros in its space program to catch up with the US and Russia and realize what President Xi Jinping calls the "space dream" of the Chinese people, AFP reported.

The world's second-largest economy, which has been establishing itself as a major space power for two decades, hopes to send a manned mission to the moon by 2030 and build a base there.

The capsule carrying the crew of the Shenzhou-19 mission, including the third Chinese woman in space, Wang Haizhuo, landed in the early afternoon "without incident" in

Inner Mongolia (northern China), the Chinese news agency reported.

The three astronauts "are in good health" and "the Shenzhou-19 manned mission is a complete success," the agency boasted.

Attached to a huge red and white parachute, the spacecraft slowly descended before landing on the sandy soil of the landing zone, where a red and yellow Chinese flag had been planted, according to footage from state television CCTV. | BGNES