Watch China's Shenzhou 13 astronauts return to Earth from space station tonight

Tonight is the return of the first Chinese crew to the space station, and you can watch it live online.

The three-person crew of China's Shenzhou 13 mission to the Tiangong space station will land tonight (April 15) during a four-hour window that opens at 8 p.m. EDT (0000 April 16 GMT) with an expected landing near Dongfeng in the Gobi Desert in Inner Mongolia. You can watch the video in the window above, courtesy of China's state-run CCTV news agency.

Returning home on the Shenzhou 13 spacecraft will be mission commander Zhai Zhigang and crewmates Wang Yaping and Ye Guangfu. Shenzhou 13 undocked from the station today at 12:44 p.m. EDT (1644 GMT), according an update from the China Manned Space Engineering branch of the China National Space Administration. 

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Ye is on his first spaceflight, while Zhai and Wang are veteran astronauts. The trio launched to the Tiangong station on October 15 and will be in space for 183 days.

Wang was the first woman to visit the space station when she was on the 13th mission. Wang was the first woman to perform a spacewalk in China when she and Zhai worked outside.

The new space station was outfitd with the help of two spacewalks and docking tests. They were involved in more than 20 science experiments on a variety of subjects, including life sciences and the effects of spaceflight on the human body.

The crew delivered two science lectures to students on Earth and were the first Chinese astronauts to celebrate the lunar new year in space.

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