China readies Shenzhou mission ahead of schedule after spacecraft damage
By Eduardo Baptista
BEIJING (Reuters) – China has started preparations ahead of schedule to send a Shenzhou spacecraft to its permanently manned space station, state broadcaster CCTV reported on Saturday.
Shenzhou-22 is sent without anyone on board to the Tiangong space station six months before its scheduled launch in order to get China’s manned space program back on track.
The Shenzhou missions had run like clockwork since 2021 until ten days ago, when Shenzhou-20 was damaged while docked at Tiangong, forcing its three-person crew to “stay for nine more days with another trio of astronauts.”
On Friday, the Shenzhou-20 crew boarded the Shenzhou-21 spacecraft and successfully returned to Earth, leaving the trio of astronauts newly arrived two weeks ago without a vessel that could take them home in an emergency.
Shenzhou-22 is being sent ahead of schedule to eliminate this security risk and allow the Shenzhou-21 crew to return to Earth around April 2026, once they have completed their semi-annual shift.
“Preparations for the Shenzhou-22 mission have begun. The spacecraft will carry a full cargo, including provisions for astronauts and equipment for the space station,” CCTV reported .
Tiangong has a maximum capacity of six crew members, but this can only be maintained temporarily as the facility is designed to accommodate three astronauts for six months.
China has not yet announced what will happen to the damaged Shenzhou-20, which is believed to have been hit by space debris, slightly cracking the window of its return capsule.
Experts have suggested the ship could be undocked from Tiangong and de-orbited over the Pacific.
(Reporting by Eduardo Baptista; editing by Alexander Smith)
