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Last week, three Chinese astronauts were rescued from the Tiangong Space Station after spending a record 204 days there. The Shenzhou-20 crew had been stuck on the station after a piece of space junk is believed to have struck their return capsule. The capsule was damaged just hours before it was due to depart for Earth on Nov. 5.
Now, three more Chinese astronauts are stranded on the Tiangong Space Station with no way home following the rescue of their colleagues. Why? The Shenzhou-20 crew used the return capsule of the Shenzhou-21 crew to finally return home.
The three members of the Shenzhou 21 mission arrived at the space station on Oct. 31. The plan was for a six-month stay. Unfortunately, their only way home departed with the Shenzhou-20 crew. Due to that change, the Shenzhou 21 mission will almost certainly be cut short.
How are the Chinese going to get these three astronauts back to Earth?
According to SpaceNews, China’s human spaceflight program keeps a Long March 2F rocket and Shenzhou spacecraft in a state of near readiness at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. That rocket and spacecraft can reportedly be readied for launch in around 8.5 days. In an emergency, it could possibly be launched and sent unmanned to the Tiangong Space Station. The Shenzhou 21 crew could then use its return capsule to come home. The crew could also, in an extremely desperate situation, attempt to travel back to Earth using the damaged Shenzhou-20 capsule.
The China Manned Space Engineering Office (CMSE) could also send the Shenzhou-22 spacecraft without a crew to the space station for the Shenzhou 21 to use for a return to Earth. Currently, no launch date has been announced for that mission. The only news released so far by the CSME Office was a statement given to Chinese news agency Xinhua. The space agency would only say that Shenzhou 22 will be launched at an “appropriate time in the future.”
In the meantime, the Shenzhou 21 crew will be crossing their fingers that no more space debris strikes the Tiangong Space Station while they wait.
“I’m very glad that they (Shenzhou-20 crew) got home, but it is a bit disconcerting that the replacement crew apparently does not have a vehicle to come back to Earth,” Victoria Samson, chief director of space security and stability at Secure World Foundation, told Scientific American.