Chinese astronauts arrive home after suspected debris strike delays return to Earth
After a nine-day wait, they finally headed home on the Shenzhou-21 spacecraft that transported the incoming crew, according to the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA).
On Nov. 14, three Chinese astronauts safely returned to Earth aboard the Shenzhou-21 spacecraft after a suspected debris strike cracked a window on their original vessel.
(CNN) — Three Chinese astronauts landed back on Earth on Friday more than a week later than their scheduled arrival, capping an extended stay in space after a suspected debris strike left their spaceship with a cracked window.
The crew of the Shenzhou-20 spaceflight had been due to finish their mission at China’s Tiangong space station last Wednesday; they’d even handed the keys to the space station to a new crew who had just arrived for their own six-month mission.
But instead, their journey home was postponed “due to a suspected impact from tiny space debris” to their ship, according to state-run news agency Xinhua.
After a nine-day wait, they finally headed home on the Shenzhou-21 spacecraft that transported the incoming crew, according to the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA).
Astronauts Chen Dong, Chen Zhongrui, and Wang Jie at a news conference ahead of their Shenzhou-20 mission at Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Gansu, China, on April 23. (China Daily/Reuters via CNN Newsource)
Medical teams found that the astronauts were in good physical condition, Chinese state media outlet CCTV reported.
“The path of humanity’s exploration of space is not smooth,” Chen Dong, one of the astronauts, told journalists in front of the capsule. “It is full of difficulties and challenges, and that is also why we choose to walk this path.”
“I’m very proud that we successfully completed the mission…We have finally made it home safely.”
The damaged Shenzhou-20 ship had “a slight crack” in the window of its return capsule, likely caused by debris impact, making it unsafe for the crew to return in, according to the CMSA. The ship will stay in orbit to carry out experiments instead, the agency said.
During their extra week in space, the crew continued working and living alongside the newly arrived Shenzhou-21 astronauts, as the space station has enough capacity to support two crews in orbit, according to Xinhua.
The Tiangong station is only one of two operating space stations, alongside the International Space Station. Since it was completed in 2022, the biannual launches of China’s Shenzhou program have been a source of national pride.
Recent advances have seen China break an American-held record for the longest spacewalk, with a nine-hour sortie, and it’s about to open the doors of the Tiangong to foreigners for the first time, with plans to welcome an astronaut from Pakistan next year.
A Long March-2F rocket carrying the Shenzhou-20 spacecraft and crew takes off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in China's Gansu province on April 24. (China Daily/Reuters via CNN Newsource)
The new crew on board the Shenzhou-21 – who are now without a spaceship to return in – include China’s youngest astronaut to be sent to space, 32-year-old Wu Fei.
The Shenzhou-22, due to launch sometime next year, will include one astronaut who stays more than a year for a “long-duration residency experiment,” Xinhua reported.
China’s rapid development in space exploration has raised alarm bells in Washington, which is racing to put an astronaut on the moon again. The Trump administration placed bans on Chinese citizens with US visas participating in NASA programs.
The US space agency is familiar with the difficulties of retrieving astronauts who have been left in limbo. NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, for example, spent 371 days on the ISS — a US record — after a tiny piece of space debris struck his Russian Soyuz spacecraft and forced a monthslong extension to his trip. Roscosmos launched a replacement capsule that eventually carried Rubio and cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin back to Earth.
Last year, NASA’s Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams saw their weeklong stay on the International Space Station stretch into a more than nine-month mission after their spacecraft malfunctioned during a test flight. They joined the ISS expedition crewand eventually returned home in March.
Both countries are also competing in nascent institution-building efforts, with the US-led Artemis Accords on lunar exploration matched up against the Chinese- and Russian-led International Lunar Research Station.
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