China completes first emergency mission to Tiangong space station
發佈日期: 2025-11-25 20:08
TVB News
China's first emergency space mission was launched on Tuesday, as the country worked to plug safety risks at its crewed space station after a vessel was damaged in orbit earlier this month.
At 12:11 p.m., the unmanned Shenzhou-22 spacecraft lifted off on a Long March-2F rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in northwest China.
Video shared by the Chinese state broadcaster showed the rocket blazing into space with the spacecraft later separated from the rocket and entered its planned orbit.
The three astronauts in the Shenzhou-21 mission watched the process from the space station.
The Shenzhou-22 spacecraft is supposed to carry out the crewed mission around April 2026 and the Shenzhou-20 vessel was meant to return the trio of Chinese astronauts back to Earth, but was deemed unfit to fly after its return capsule was allegedly cracked by space debris.
The incident forced China's space authorities on November 14 to deploy the only remaining flightworthy vessel, the Shenzhou-21, to pick up the Shenzhou-20 crew.
Shenzhou-22 -- now departed with food, fresh fruit and vegetables as well as medical supplies, spare parts for Tiangong, and equipment to repair the window crack on Shenzhou-20, which remains docked at the space station.
Chinese safety protocols have always required a backup carrier rocket and Shenzhou spacecraft to be on standby at all times.
With the unmanned Shenzhou-22 vessel already stationed at the Jiuquan launch centre, it took 16 days for China's space authorities to execute the emergency launch procedure -- much shorter than the usual launch timeline for a Shenzhou mission of around 45 days.
