closing 204 After several days in orbit, three Chinese astronauts returned to Earth on Friday aboard the Shenzhou spacecraft, leaving their three companions at the Tiangong space station with a damaged lifeboat.
Commander Chen Dong, concluding his third trip to space, and novice crewmates Chen Zhongrui and Wang Jie landed inside their spacecraft at the Dongfeng Landing Zone at 1:29 a.m. EST (06:29 UTC) on Friday. The parachute landing took place in mid-afternoon at a return zone in the remote Gobi Desert in northwestern China.
Chinese space officials halted operations at the country’s Tiangong Space Laboratory last week after astronauts found one of the two Shenzhou return capsules docked at the station was damaged. The China Manned Space Agency, run by the country’s military, announced the change to the space station’s flight plan on Nov. 4, the day the three crew members were scheduled to depart and fly home.
Chen and his crew were preparing to board the Shenzhou 20 spacecraft for return to Earth, days after the arrival of three replacement crew members on the newly launched Shenzhou 21 capsule. Shenzhou 20 is the same spacecraft that launched Chen’s crew in April.
But a little more than a week ago, Chinese officials said the Shenzhou 20 spacecraft was “suspected to have been impacted by small space debris” and confirmed that the return trip would be postponed. Officials did not provide any additional details.
China’s human spaceflight agency issued a cryptic statement earlier this week saying preparations for crewed docking and landing were underway, but the circumstances of the astronauts’ return remained opaque until hours before they were due to return home. Ultimately, officials confirmed details of the return to Earth late Thursday night.
“Based on preliminary analysis of photographs, design review, simulation analysis, and wind tunnel tests, a comprehensive assessment revealed that a small crack had developed in the return capsule window glass of the Shenzhou 20 manned spacecraft, which was likely caused by the external impact of space debris,” the China Manned Space Agency wrote on Chinese social media platform Weibo. “It does not meet the release conditions for safe manned return.”
Spacecraft swapping in low-Earth orbit
With their original spacecraft deemed unsafe, Chen and his companions returned to Earth aboard the new Shenzhou 21 spacecraft, which launched and arrived at Tiangong Station on October 31. The three astronauts who launched on Shenzhou 21—Zhang Lu, Wu Fei and Zhang Hongzhang—are stranded aboard the nearly 100-metric-ton space station, with only the damaged Shenzhou 20 spacecraft available to bring them home.
China’s Shenzhou spacecraft not only provide transportation to and from low Earth orbit, but they also serve as lifeboats to evacuate astronauts from the Chinese space station in case of in-flight emergencies, such as major failures or medical crises. They serve a similar role to the Russian Soyuz and SpaceX Crew Dragon vehicles that fly from the International Space Station.
Another Shenzhou spacecraft, Shenzhou 22, “will be launched at a later date,” the China Manned Space Agency said in a statement. Shenzhou 20 will remain in orbit to “continue relevant experiments.” The Tiangong Laboratory is designed to support a crew of six for short periods only, with facilities for three astronauts for longer periods.