China's Shenzhou XIV manned spaceship separated from the space station combination at 11:01 am Sunday (Beijing Time), according to the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA).

Three astronauts, Chen Dong, Liu Yang and Cai Xuzhe, have lived and worked in the space station complex for 183 days.

Prior to the separation, the astronauts had completed various work, such as completing the in-orbit rotation with the Shenzhou XV crew, setting the status of the space station complex, sorting and downloading experiment data, and clearing and transferring supplies kept in orbit, with support from sci-tech staff on the ground, the CMSA said.

The Shenzhou XIV spaceship will reenter the Earth atmosphere at an appropriate time under ground control and start its journey home.

The China Manned Space Agency said on Saturday morning that the Shenzhou XIV astronauts handed over on Friday evening the control of the Tiangong station to their peers in the Shenzhou XV -- Major General Fei Junlong, Senior Colonel Deng Qingming and Senior Colonel Zhang Lu, who arrived on the massive orbiting outpost on Wednesday.

Chen and his crew mates are scheduled to fly back aboard their Shenzhou XIV spacecraft to the Dongfeng Landing Site in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region on Sunday evening, according to the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China that manages the landing site.

The center said on Saturday that recovery workers are getting ready for the crew's return.

The three Shenzhou XIV astronauts were sent to the space station on June 5. They have completed multiple tasks over the past few months, including overseeing five rendezvous-and-dockings, performing three extravehicular activities, giving one live science lecture, and conducting a number of sci-tech experiments.

The Shenzhou XIV astronauts arrived at Tiangong on the evening of June 5, several hours after their spacecraft was launched from the Jiuquan center. The crew is the third group of visitors to the Chinese station, one of the largest pieces of infrastructure mankind has ever deployed in Earth's orbit.

During their six-month journey, they monitored the arrival of the Wentian and Mengtian space lab modules, which completed the Tiangong's in-orbit assembly. They also carried out three spacewalks and delivered a science lecture to Chinese students.

Chen now holds the record for the longest in-orbit time of a Chinese astronaut after spending a total of 214 days on two space missions.

Currently, the Tiangong station consists of the Tianhe core module, the Wentian and Mengtian lab modules, the Shenzhou XIV and XV spacecraft and the Tianzhou 5 cargo ship.