China's Shenzhou-20, Shenzhou-21 crews complete in-orbit handover

China's Shenzhou-20 crew on Tuesday completed their in-orbit handover with the Shenzhou-21 crew and will return to Earth on Wednesday, according to the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA). At the handover ceremony at the Tianhe core module of the Chinese Space Station, all six astronauts from the two teams signing confirmation forms.

Chen Dong, commander of the Shenzhou-20 crew, handed over the symbolic key to the space station to Zhang Lu, commander of the Shenzhou-21 crew.

"After several days of work handover, the Shenzhou-21 crew have quickly settled into their roles, adapted to the environment, and become familiar with the work rhythm, making a good start. We are about to return to Earth, and now I hand over the hatch key, symbolizing our responsibility for the Chinese space station, to you. I hope that in the next six months, you will work efficiently and live healthily. And as you said at the media briefing, I hope you will demonstrate the romance of astronauts, build and maintain our space home, and fulfill your promises with concrete actions," Chen said.

"Please rest assured that we will take up the responsibility and safeguard our space home. We will build and manage the Chinese space station well, and make it the most suitable paradise in the universe," Zhang said.

The Shenzhou-21 crewed spacecraft was launched into space on Friday atop a Long March-2F carrier rocket.

As of now, the three Shenzhou-20 astronauts -- Chen Dong, Chen Zhongrui and Wang Jie -- have completed all scheduled tasks at China's Tiangong space station, and are set to land at the Dongfeng landing site aboard the Shenzhou-20 spacecraft.

Currently, the landing site and all participating systems are making final preparations to welcome the trio back.

China's Shenzhou-20, Shenzhou-21 crews complete in-orbit handover

China's Shenzhou-20, Shenzhou-21 crews complete in-orbit handover

China's Shenzhou-20, Shenzhou-21 crews complete in-orbit handover

China's Shenzhou-20, Shenzhou-21 crews complete in-orbit handover

Tokyo stocks rose Friday, with the benchmark Nikkei stock index ending at a fresh record high, buoyed by optimism over a settlement in the Middle East conflict.

The 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average ended up 1,654.93 points, or 2.68 percent, from Thursday at 63,339.07.

The broader Topix index, meanwhile, finished 38.65 points, or 1.00 percent, higher at 3,892.46.

"There was some optimistic trade around the latest U.S.-Iran talks, but this optimism seems to be based on the fact that things aren't getting drastically worse in the region rather than the situation improving significantly," Timothy Pope, a market analyst for China Global Television Network (CGTN), recapped the day's developments.

"This optimism was most strongly on display, I think, in Tokyo today, where the Nikkei rose 2.7 percent with hopes for some relief on oil prices and other currently scarce materials. It's not just oil that is not getting out of the region. As we know, it's other petrochemicals and things like helium as well. The general performance was pretty strong. Metals producers were doing fairly well in Tokyo, but in Japan as well, the market is very much focused on AI stocks. And today, the gains were strong for SoftBank -- it was up almost 12 percent after a bit of a battering earlier in the week. And that SoftBank gain contributed nearly a third to the Nikkei's overall gains on Friday," said Pope.

Tokyo stocks end higher as U.S.-Iran talks fuel cautious optimism