Commander-in-chief of China's manned space program Zhang Youxia announced that the Shenzhou-10 mission was a success after the three crew members landed safely and left the spacecraft's re-entry module on Wednesday morning.

Nie Haisheng, commander of the Shenzhou-10 space mission, was the first member of the crew to successfully emerge from the spacecraft's re-entry module at around 9:30 (Beijing Time) on Wednesday morning after a 15-day stay in low earth orbit.

Following his safe return, Nie has set the record for the most amount of time spent in space by a Chinese astronaut, totaling more than 470 hours over the course of two missions.

The Shenzhou-10 space mission's female crew member Wang Yaping was next to exit the spacecraft's re-entry module at 9:36 (Beijing Time) Wednesday morning.

During the mission, Wang successfully conducted a 40-minute space lecture in orbit for millions of Chinese students on Earth.

Astronaut Zhang Xiaoguang successfully emerged from the Shenzhou-10 spacecraft's re-entry module at around 9:41, Wednesday morning, following the other two astronauts.

During his first space mission, Zhang piloted the spacecraft and served as the cameraman for China's first space lecture during a live broadcast.

(Xinhua News Agency June 26, 2013)