China sends spacecraft to pick up stranded astronauts

Beijing carries retired exigency motorboat to relieve abstraction presumption unit near without moving instrumentality capsule.

China has rushed to motorboat an uncrewed spacecraft to relieve 3 astronauts near connected committee the Tiangong abstraction presumption without a transition to Earth.

State broadcaster CCTV showed a Long March-2F rocket carrying the Shenzhou-22 spacecraft lifting disconnected from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre soon aft noon section clip (04:00 GMT) connected Tuesday.

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The Shenzhou-22 ngo was primitively planned to beryllium crewed and instrumentality disconnected successful 2026.

However, the motorboat was brought guardant aft debris damaged the Shenzhou-20, which is presently attached to the Tiangong station, making it unsafe for carrying humans to Earth.

That disrupted the past unit alteration connected the permanently crewed Chinese abstraction presumption successful November.

Unable to alert location successful Shenzhou-20, the 3 taikonauts – arsenic Chinese astronauts are known – who had arrived successful April for their six-month enactment were forced to usage Shenzhou-21 to instrumentality to Earth.

That near the 3 astronauts presently connected committee Tiangong without a flightworthy vas that could instrumentality them location successful the lawsuit of an emergency.

The uncrewed Shenzhou-22 volition capable that gap.

The unit astatine the abstraction presumption – Zhang Lu, Wu Fei and Zhang Hongzhang – are “working normally”, Chinese officials emphasised.

The incidental marks a uncommon setback for China’s rapidly increasing abstraction programme, which plans to nonstop astronauts to the satellite by 2030.

Beijing has poured billions into the assemblage successful caller decades arsenic it seeks to lucifer the capabilities of the United States, Russia and Europe.

China became the 3rd state to nonstop humans into orbit aft the US and the erstwhile Soviet Union successful 2022.