The unmanned Shenzhou-22 spacecraft is due to dock at China’s Tiangong space station to replace the Shenzhou-21 spacecraft, which had to return to Earth six months early after another spacecraft attached to the station was damaged.
Tiangong and the three-member Chinese crew have not had a spacecraft to return to in the event of an emergency for ten days, which has not happened since the start of the station’s operation at the end of 2022.
The damaged spacecraft Shenzhou-20, with which the astronaut trio was supposed to return on November 5, was hit by space debris, so the crew returned on spacecraft number 21.
Shenzhou-22 was launched on Tuesday from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China, like all other missions of the same name.
The key difference is that this time the spacecraft does not have a human crew, as only three astronauts can stay on the space station long-term.
The manned Shenzhou-23 should be launched sometime in April next year.
Due to the damage to the Shenzhou-20 spacecraft, its crew had to remain on the station for an additional ten days along with the crew of the Shenzhou-21 spacecraft that had just arrived, so the station had to operate at full capacity with six astronauts for longer than the usual shift.
(Vijesti.ba)
