One crew rescued, another stranded.
We have been reporting about the serious problems faced by the Chinese astronauts (or rather, taikonauts) in the Tiangong Space Station, and how the solution to rescue one crew has left another stranded in orbit.
The Shenzhou-20 crew had their return flight suspended after it was discovered that their return capsule had been damaged by space junk.
After a delay of more than a week, the three-man crew was returned to Earth on the Shenzhou-21 capsule.
The Shenzhou 21 spacecraft, launched on Oct 31, departed Tiangong space station today for a record-breaking short 13-day mission, rescuing Shenzhou 20 crews. Full HD:https://t.co/4obU53R81J pic.twitter.com/NeAOc3Um9K
— CNSA Watcher (@CNSAWatcher) November 14, 2025
By 5:21 p.m. (Beijing Time) on Friday, the three members of the Shenzhou-20 crew — Chen Dong, Chen Zhongrui and Wang Jie — had all left the Shenzhou-21 return capsule. They had spent 204 days in orbit and are all in good health, the China Manned Space Agency said.
Chen Dong,… pic.twitter.com/QXJpME1ExK
— China News 中国新闻网 (@Echinanews) November 14, 2025
The rescue of the Shenzhou-20 was successful, but of course that left another three Chinese astronauts are stuck in space.
The New York Post reported:
“Astronauts Zhang Lu, Wu Fei and Zhang Hongzhang, all with the Shenzhou-21 mission, are marooned at China’s Tiangong space station until another shuttle is available to pick them up.
The only problem is that the China Manned Space Agency has only vaguely confirmed that the Shenzhou-22 spacecraft, the crew’s likely only viable way back home, would be launched at ‘an appropriate time in the future’.”
The Shenzou-20 crew’s capsule was damaged by space debris, so Shenzou-21 became their lifeboat. Now Shenzou-21 is stranded until Shenzou-22 arrives. No immediate danger, but still high-risk! #SpaceNews #Shenzou pic.twitter.com/nAB5xud3fN
— Astronomy Daily (@AstroDailyPod) November 15, 2025
“Each Shenzhou crew completes a six-month mission before being replaced by the next group of intrepid space explorers, according to NASA Space Flight. During the handover period, which typically lasts a few days, the incoming and outgoing Shenzhou vessels are both docked at the space station.”
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