China will launch the unmanned Shenzhou-22 spacecraft on Tuesday, its space authorities said on Monday, marking an effort to restore normal operations at the Tiangong space station after a damaged vessel forced an unexpected reshuffling of mission schedules.
The Shenzhou-22 will replace the Shenzhou-21 return craft, which was brought back to Earth six months earlier than planned after another docked spacecraft, Shenzhou-20, sustained damage in early November. The early return left Tiangong’s three-member crew without an operational return vehicle for 10 days — the first time the station has been without an evacuation option since reaching full operations in late 2022.
The China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) said the launch will take place at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China, consistent with previous Shenzhou missions. Unlike its predecessors, Shenzhou-22 will fly without a crew to avoid exceeding Tiangong’s long-term capacity of three astronauts.
The damaged Shenzhou-20 remains docked to the space station. Spaceflight analysts have suggested that the vessel may need to be undocked and de-orbited over the Pacific Ocean, but CMSA has not yet outlined its plan for the craft.
Earlier this month, structural issues detected on Shenzhou-20 required its crew to remain aboard Tiangong for an additional nine days alongside the newly arrived Shenzhou-21 astronauts, temporarily raising the station’s occupancy to six — the upper limit of its design.
With Shenzhou-22 in place as a functional return vehicle, China’s next crewed mission is expected to be Shenzhou-23, scheduled for around April next year.
