BEIJING -- The Chinese space-tracking ship Yuanwang-6 returned to its home port on Thursday morning after completing three satellite monitoring missions.

This year, the ship has spent more than 240 days at sea, sailing over 50,000 nautical miles, and completed nine monitoring tasks. During its latest voyage, which lasted 114 days, it carried out three tasks monitoring satellites.

After docking at the port, Yuanwang-6 will undergo maintenance, preparing for missions next year, sources with the country's maritime satellite tracking and controlling authorities said.