Chinese astronauts onboard the spacecraft Shenzhou-7 started preparing this morning for the return trip to the earth after accomplishing China's first spacewalk yesterday afternoon.

The three taikonauts were taking on in-cabin space suits at 11:10 am and control data for the return trip would be sent to the spacecraft.

The Shenzhou-7 spacecraft took off from northwest China's Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center at 9:10 pm on Thursday, and is scheduled to land on the Inner Mongolia steppe at about 5:40 pm today.