Three Chinese astronauts will return to Earth on Friday, more than a week later than scheduled for landing, ending their long stay in space after a suspected debris collision caused a window on their spacecraft to crack.
The crew of the Shenzhou 20 spaceflight was scheduled to end their mission at China’s Tiangong Space Station last Wednesday. They even handed over the keys to the space station to new crew members who had just arrived for a six-month mission.
But instead, their return home was postponed “due to the suspected impact on the ship by small space debris,” state news agency Xinhua said.
According to the China Manned Space Administration (CMSA), after a nine-day wait, the Shenzhou 21 spacecraft that carried the arriving crew members is finally on its way back home.
The spacecraft will return to the Dongfeng landing site in northern China’s Inner Mongolia region, state media said. The three astronauts (Chen Dong, Chen Zhongrui, and Wang Jie) are in good health and preparations for landing are underway.
CMSA said the damaged Shenzhou-20 ship had “minor cracks” in the return capsule window, likely caused by debris impact, making it unsafe for the crew to return. The ship will instead remain in orbit to conduct experiments, the agency said.
The space station has enough capacity to support two crew members in orbit, so the crew continued to work and live alongside the newly arrived Shenzhou 21 astronauts during an additional week in space, Xinhua said.
Tiangong Station is just one of two space stations operating alongside the International Space Station. China’s Shenzhou project, launched every six months since its completion in 2022, has become a source of national pride.
With recent advances, China broke the record for the longest spacewalk held by the United States with a nine-hour sortie, and is opening the doors of the Heavenly Palace to foreigners for the first time, with plans to welcome astronauts from Pakistan next year.
Shenzhou 21’s new crew, which currently has no spacecraft to return to, includes 32-year-old Wu Fei, China’s youngest astronaut to be sent into space.
According to Xinhua news agency, Shenzhou 22, scheduled to launch next year, will include one astronaut who will stay for more than a year for a “long-term stay experiment.”
China’s rapid progress in space exploration is sounding alarm bells in Washington, which is desperate to land astronauts on the moon again. The Trump administration has banned Chinese nationals with U.S. visas from participating in NASA programs.
The US space agency is well aware of the challenges of rescuing astronauts stranded in space. What was supposed to be a short stay on the International Space Station was extended to a more than nine-month mission for two American astronauts after their spacecraft malfunctioned earlier this year. Eventually, they returned home in March.
The two countries are also competing in early institution-building efforts, with the U.S.-led Artemis Agreement on lunar exploration facing off against the China- and Russia-led International Lunar Research Station.
