Three Chinese astronauts returned from their country’s space station on Friday after more than a week’s delay after the reentry capsule they had planned to use was damaged, possibly by space debris.
The team left its Shenzhou-20 spacecraft in orbit and returned using the recently arrived Shenzhou-21, which carried a three-person replacement crew to the station, China’s manned space agency said.
The original return plan was abandoned because the Shenzhou-20 capsule had small cracks in its window, likely from an impact from space debris, the space agency said Friday.
They were on a six-month rotation and were originally due to return on November 5, four days after the arrival of the new crew. Their return was delayed by nine days, and their 204-day stay in space was the longest for an astronaut on the Chinese space station.
It was not clear whether the spacecraft replacement would affect the timing of future missions to the Tiangong space station, where new crews are normally replaced every six months. The space agency said Shenzhou-22 would be launched, but did not say when.
Mission Commander Chen Dong said he felt at ease after their return, calling his latest trip into space both a training opportunity and a real test.
“The path of human space exploration is not smooth,” he said after emerging from the capsule. “It’s full of difficulties and challenges. But that’s exactly why we choose to go this way.”
The reentry capsule deployed a red-and-white-striped parachute as it landed in a remote location in northern China’s Gobi Desert in the late afternoon, about five and a half hours from the space station. The impact created a large cloud of dust in the barren landscape.
The astronauts were brought out one by one after about 30 minutes and placed in waiting chairs, which were then loaded into individual orange trucks that took them across the flat and dirty desert.
Millions of pieces of space junk are orbiting the Earth at speeds faster than a bullet. Most of the time, small fragments can result from launch and impact and pose a risk to satellites, space stations and astronauts working outside them.
The temporarily stranded astronauts, who left for the space station in April, were conducting experiments with a new crew and were “in good condition, working and living normally,” the space agency said earlier this week.
Four mice returned with the astronauts, which also had a longer than planned arrival on Shenzhou-21 about two weeks ago.
Mice were brought in to study how weightlessness and confinement would affect them. The research will help develop technology to breed and monitor small mammals in space, the Chinese Academy of Sciences said.
Jiang Yue, of the academy’s Center for Space Applications Engineering and Technology, said the mice were monitored for 24 hours in orbit to track their performance. The researchers found that the mice adapted to the microgravity environment in a very short time and were able to eat, drink and sleep on their own. The mice will be sent to the hospital for further examination.
China’s space program is a source of national pride. State broadcaster CCTV showed the astronauts’ return live. China’s national flag fluttered in strong winds after being planted on the ground near where the capsule landed.
In addition to building its own space station, China has also explored Mars with a robotic rover and aims to reach Mars by 2030. to land a man on the moon.
China created the Tiangong space station after the country was removed from the International Space Station due to US national security concerns. China’s space program is controlled by its military.
Tiangong, which means “Heavenly Palace”, was first hosted by the crew in 2021. It is smaller than the International Space Station, which has been in operation for 25 years.
The International Space Station has also been delayed in its return, notably for two NASA astronauts whose one-week test flight of Boeing’s new crew capsule in 2024. turned nine months after problems with the capsule.
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Associated Press researchers Yu Bing and Shihuan Chen and video producer Olivia Zhang contributed to this report.