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Conclusion 204 After two days in orbit, three Chinese astronauts returned to Earth aboard a Shenzhou spacecraft on Friday, leaving behind three crew members at the Tiangong space station with a broken lifeboat.
Commander Chen Dong, concluding his third spaceflight, and fellow rookies Chen Chongrui and Wang Jie landed inside their spacecraft at the Dongfeng Landing Zone at 1:29 a.m. EDT (06:29 UTC) on Friday. The landing took place with the help of a parachute in mid-afternoon at the return area located in the remote Gobi Desert in northwestern China.
Chinese space officials lifted operations at the country’s Tiangong Space Laboratory last week after astronauts discovered damage to one of the two Shenzhou return capsules docked at the station. The Chinese Manned Space Agency, run by the Chinese military, Announce changes to the space station’s flight plan November 4, the day before three crew members were to depart and return home.
Chen and his colleagues were preparing to board the Shenzhou 20 spacecraft for a return to Earth just days after three replacement crew members arrived aboard the newly launched Shenzhou 21 capsule. Shenzhou 20 is the same spacecraft that launched Chen’s crew in April.
But just over a week ago, Chinese officials said the Shenzhou 20 spacecraft was “suspected of being affected by small space debris” and confirmed that its return flight would be postponed. Officials did not provide any additional details.
The China Manned Space Flight Agency issued a vague statement earlier this week saying preparations were underway for crew landing and landing, but conditions for the return remained mysterious until hours before the astronauts returned home. Finally, officials confirmed details of the return to Earth late Thursday.
“Based on preliminary analysis of photographs, design review, simulation analysis, and wind tunnel tests, a comprehensive evaluation determined that the window glass of the return capsule of the Shenzhou 20 manned spacecraft had suffered a minor fracture, most likely due to external impact from space debris,” the China Manned Space Agency wrote on Weibo, the Chinese social media platform. “This does not meet the release conditions for a safe manned return.”
Swapping spacecraft in low Earth orbit
Because their original spacecraft was deemed unsafe, Chen and his colleagues returned to Earth aboard the newer Shenzhou 21 spacecraft, which lifted off and arrived at the Tiangong Station on October 31. The three astronauts who launched on Shenzhou 21 — Zhang Lu, Wu Fei, and Zhang Hongzhang — remain aboard the roughly 100 metric ton space station with only the damaged Shenzhou 20 spacecraft to bring them home.
China’s Shenzhou line of spaceships not only provides transportation to and from low Earth orbit, but also serves as lifeboats to evacuate astronauts from the Chinese space station in the event of an in-flight emergency, such as a major malfunction or medical crisis. They serve the same role as Russian Soyuz aircraft and SpaceX Crew Dragon vehicles fly to and 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.” Tiangong Laboratory is designed to support crews of six astronauts for short periods only, with longer stays for three astronauts.