November 25, 2025, 07:13November 25, 2025, 07:24
After an unplanned spaceship swap on the “Tiangong” (Sky Palace) space station, China has sent a new return capsule into space. The unmanned spacecraft “Shenzhou 22” took off from the Jiuquan cosmodrome in northwest China’s Gobi Desert at around noon (local time) with the “Long March 2F” carrier rocket, the manned space agency announced. The vehicle with food and spare parts on board is supposed to dock on the “Tiangong”, where the three-person crew of the “Shenzhou 21” mission is expecting it.
The spaceship has food and spare parts on board. (symbol image)Image: keystone
Zhang Lu, Wu Fei and Zhang Hongzhang, who only began their six-month stay in space at the beginning of November, now have the opportunity to return to Earth. After their arrival, they had to hand over their spacecraft to their predecessors on the “Shenzhou 20” mission, who were stranded in space – the first incident of this kind in the history of the “Tiangong”.
What had happened?
The “Shenzhou 20” crew was actually supposed to fly back to Earth on November 5th with their spaceship of the same name. But cracks in the window, which Chinese space experts assumed were caused by the collision with small pieces of space debris, had initially delayed the return indefinitely.
The “Shenzhou-20” crew before their mission into space.Image: keystone
The mission management finally decided that the three men should transfer to the “Shenzhou 21” and return on November 14th. The start of the “Shenzhou 22”, which was actually only planned for April 2026 as part of the semi-annual crew swap, has now been brought forward.
Fate of the “Shenzhou 20” unclear
It remains unclear what will happen to the “Shenzhou 20” that is still docked to the space station. “Shenzhou 22” brings spare parts for repairing windows into space. In mid-November, the space agency said the capsule would remain in orbit for further testing.
Space debris refers to all objects that are no longer in use, such as satellites or fragments of them, that resulted from collisions or explosions. Trash in space has become an increasingly pressing problem over the decades of international space travel. (sda/dpa)
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