Three Chinese language astronauts will not be “stranded” in orbit for for much longer.
A Lengthy March 2F/G rocket lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite tv for pc Launch Heart in northwest China tonight (Nov. 24) at 11:11 p.m. EST (0411 GMT and 12:11 p.m. on Nov. 25 Beijing time).
Shenzhou missions sometimes fly three astronauts to Tiangong, the place they keep for six-month stints. Nevertheless, the Shenzhou 22 automobile is uncrewed, as a result of it is going to function the experience house for the orbiting outpost’s three present residents.
These astronauts are flying on the Shenzhou 21 mission, which arrived at Tiangong on Halloween night time. However the spacecraft they rode up on is already gone; it was pressed into service to take their predecessors, the Shenzhou 20 trio, house on Nov. 14.
The Shenzhou 20 astronauts had been supposed to depart Tiangong on Nov. 5, however inspections revealed a crack within the window of their spacecraft, the obvious consequence of an influence by a bit of area particles. Chinese language area officers delayed the crew’s departure to research the problem, then in the end deemed the Shenzhou 20 craft unsafe to take astronauts right down to Earth.
So, for the previous 10 days, the Shenzhou 21 astronauts have been in a considerably precarious place: Ought to Tiangong endure a significant issue, they’ve no solution to safely evacuate.
That’s about to alter. Supplied that Shenzhou 22 docks with Tiangong as deliberate about 4.5 hours after launch, the Shenzhou 21 astronauts will serve out the rest of their half-year mission aboard the outpost. They are going to be relieved by the three astronauts of Shenzhou 23, which is anticipated to launch in April 2026.
The Shenzhou 20 capsule might want to depart earlier than Shenzhou 23 arrives to liberate a docking port. Chinese language area officers have stated the broken spacecraft will stay in orbit for a spell to host some experiments, however they haven’t but introduced a timeline for its departure.
The Shenzhou ordeal follows on the heels of one other “stranded astronaut” saga. Boeing’s Starliner astronaut taxi skilled issues shortly after its June 2024 launch to the Worldwide House Station (ISS) on its first-ever crewed flight, which was speculated to final simply 10 days or so. NASA in the end determined to carry the automobile house uncrewed in September of that 12 months, which occurred with out incident.
The 2 Starliner astronauts, NASA’s Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, ended up staying on the ISS for greater than 9 months (although they had been by no means really stranded, as no less than one purposeful “lifeboat” spacecraft was at all times connected to the ISS throughout their keep). The duo in the end got here house on a SpaceX Dragon capsule in March of this 12 months.
The 2 off-nominal conditions have elevated calls in some quarters for a “area rescue service” — one that would assist astronauts in want in a well timed trend, whichever nation they might symbolize.
