China has launched an emergency rescue mission for its space station for the first time Tiangongafter one of the docked ships will be ruled out from returning to Earth due to damage to a window. The operation consisted of launching the unmanned ship Shenzhou 22which could act as a rescue capsule if an emergency occurred. The three astronauts aboard the orbital complex were wearing “trapped” since the 14th and without any escape optionsomething completely unusual for a space station.
The mission took off on Monday night aboard a rocket Long March 2F from the launch center Jiuquanin the desert Goby. The Shenzhou 22 It docked about three and a half hours later at the Tiangong station, located at an altitude of about 400 kilometers..
Shenzhou 20 damaged by space debris
The emergency that made this mission necessary began on November 4when the astronauts They detected damage to one of the two crew transport ships docked at the station, the Shenzhou 20. A microscope inspection allowed the defect to be photographed from different angles and confirmed the presence of a small triangular area with a crack in one of the windows, probably caused by the impact of a piece of space debris. After analyzing the situation, the engineers concluded that the ship did not offer sufficient guarantees for re-entry with people on board.
The discovery occurred in full crew reliefa few days after the arrival of three new astronauts and just before the departure of the other three who had been in orbit since April and had arrived on Shenzhou 20.
The immediate solution was return the outgoing crew on the Shenzhou 21the other ship docked and undamaged, which successfully landed on November 14. But that decision left the three new astronauts no safe return vehicle available.
China solves the crisis in 20 days
Given this scenario, the Chinese Manned Space Agency activated his contingency plan and ordered advance the launch of the Shenzhou 22initially planned for next year. According to the agency, the entire program team reacted calmly and in a coordinated manner, with the different research and test centers working around the clock to prepare the rocket and the reserve ship. Beijing presents this rapid response as an example of efficient emergency management in the space industry.
With Shenzhou 22 already docked, the astronauts Zhang Lu, Fu Wei and Zhang Hongzhang They once again have an orbital “lifeboat”. They are expected to return to Earth aboard this ship next year, shortly after the arrival of their replacements. Before, the Tiangong crew will perform a spacewalk to closely inspect Shenzhou 20’s damaged window.
The damaged ship will later undock from the station and will re-enter the atmosphere loaded with material, without people on board. If the landing goes smoothly, engineers will be able to examine the damage in detail on the ground. Preliminary studies suggest that the crack affects the outermost layer of the insulating glass, and Wind tunnel testing indicates that damage could continue to spread during reentry, leading to its use for a manned return being scrapped..
Although the probability of an emergency evacuation is low, another space debris impact, a serious systems failure or a medical problem could force the station to be abandoned in short order. Therefore, Always having a ship suitable for re-entry is a standard policy also on the International Space Stationwhere the capsules Dragon of SpaceX and the Soyuz Russians act as rescue vehicles. The recent incidents with the Shenzhou 20, the Soyuz MS-22 in 2022 and the capsule Starliner of Boeing in 2024 remind us of the extent to which space flights, even if they have been carried out hundreds of times and appear normal, are still high-risk operations.