"Three Chinese astronauts who had been stranded for days in space after a suspected piece of space junk hit their spacecraft are back on Earth, the China Manned Space Engineering Office (CMSE) announced on Friday. The agency also revealed that it had found tiny cracks in one of the windows of the crew's Shenzou 20 return capsulerendering it unusable. The astronauts instead returned onboard the Shenzhou 21 spacecraft, which had originally been used by Shenzou 20's replacement crew."
"I'm very glad that they got home, but it is a bit disconcerting that the replacement crew apparently does not have a vehicle to come back to Earth, says Victoria Samson, chief director of space security and stability at the Colorado-based nonprofit Secure World Foundation. CMSE told the Chinese news agency Xinhua that a new spacecraft, Shenzhou 22, will be launched at an appropriate time in the future, meaning that Tiangong's remaining three-person crew currently has"
Shenzhou 20 suffered damage after a suspected piece of space junk struck its spacecraft, which left tiny cracks in one of the return-capsule windows and rendered that capsule unusable. The Shenzhou 20 crew returned to Earth aboard the Shenzhou 21 spacecraft, which had been intended to remain docked at Tiangong for the replacement crew's later return. That swap left the replacement crew temporarily without an assigned return vehicle. The China Manned Space Engineering Office (CMSE) announced that a new Shenzhou 22 spacecraft will be launched at an appropriate time to restore a return option for Tiangong's crew.
Read at www.scientificamerican.com
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