China appears to be preparing a critical launch later this month to send a replacement spacecraft to the Tiangong space station, after a debris strike left its current return vehicle damaged and unusable.
The Shenzhou-21 crew has been temporarily marooned on China's Tiangong space station. This photo shows Zhang Lu (right), Wu Fei (center) and Zhang Hongzhang (left)before they launched into space on Oct. 31. Image credit: HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP via Getty Images
The three taikonauts of the Shenzhou-21 mission — commander Zhang Lu, Zhang Hongzhang and Wu Fei — have been aboard Tiangong without a dedicated ride home for nearly three days. Their return capsule, Shenzhou-20, suffered cracks in a window following an apparent collision with orbital debris. The damage rendered the spacecraft unfit for the journey back to Earth.
As a result, China’s space authorities returned the Shenzhou-20 crew to Earth aboard the capsule that had transported the Shenzhou-21 astronauts. That unexpected swap left the current crew temporarily “stranded” without a lifeboat on the station.
According to an airspace closure notice, the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) is now targeting Nov. 25 to launch a replacement craft — Shenzhou-22 — atop a Long March-2F rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Inner Mongolia. A CMSA official told state media CCTV that preparations are “in full swing,” including testing of spacecraft and rocket hardware and loading additional cargo.
The launch will not only restore the crew’s emergency return capability, but also deliver fresh supplies. The Shenzhou-21 mission began its six-month stay on Oct. 31, and Tiangong’s consumables have depleted faster than expected after the previous crew had to extend their time in orbit due to the spacecraft issue.
Shenzhou-22 was originally expected to fly sometime in April or May 2026, but China maintains contingency vehicles and rockets that can be readied in a matter of days. Even so, orbital dynamics mean that a docking attempt must wait for the station to align correctly over the launch site — stretching the wait to nearly three weeks since the damage was discovered.
This marks the second time in as many years that astronauts have found themselves in orbit without a certified return craft. In 2024, NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams spent far longer than planned aboard the International Space Station after faults emerged on Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft. They ultimately returned on a SpaceX Crew Dragon sent to retrieve them.
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