China sends spacecraft to pick up stranded astronauts

To relieve three astronauts who were stranded on the Tiangong space station without access to Earth, China has hurriedly launched an uncrewed spacecraft.

The Shenzhou-22 spacecraft was escorted from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center shortly after noon local time (05:00 GMT) on Tuesday, according to the state broadcaster CCTV.

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Initial plans for the Shenzhou-22 mission to have a crew and take off in 2026 were abandoned.

The Shenzhou-20, which is currently attached to the Tiangong station, was delayed, but the launch was delayed, making it unsafe for people to travel to Earth.

That prevented the most recent crew change on the Chinese space station, which has been given a permanent crew in November.

The three taikonauts, as they are known, who arrived in April for their six-month stay were forced to use Shenzhou-21 to travel home after being forced to do so in Shenzhou-20.

In the event of an emergency, the three astronauts currently on board Tiangong were without a flight-worthy vessel to take them home.

That will be filled by the uncrewed Shenzhou-22.

According to Chinese officials, Zhang Lu, Wu Fei, and Zhang Hongzhang, the astronauts are “working normally.”

China’s rapidly expanding space program, which intends to send astronauts to the moon by 2030, suffers a rare setback from this incident.

In recent years, Beijing has invested billions in the sector to match the capabilities of Russia, China, and other countries.

In 2022, China joined the US and the former Soviet Union as the third nation to launch humans into orbit.