The country’s first emergency space launch entered orbit after blasting off, as the country looks to plug safety risks at its crewed space station after a vessel was damaged in orbit earlier this month.
The unmanned Shenzhou-22 spacecraft lifted off atop a Long March-2F rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in northwest China at 12.11pm local time yesterday, according to China Manned Space Agency (CMSA).
Video shared by Chinese state broadcaster CCTV showed the rocket blazing into space, with Earth visible in the background as the vessel entered orbit.
The spacecraft will travel to China’s permanently inhabited Tiangong space station, where three astronauts currently reside with no flightworthy vessel that could return them to Earth in the event of an emergency.
On Nov 5, the Shenzhou-20 vessel was meant to return a trio of Chinese astronauts back to Earth but was deemed unfit to fly after the window of its return capsule was cracked by what CMSA suspects was impact from space debris.
This forced China’s space authorities on Nov 14 to deploy the only remaining flightworthy vessel, the Shenzhou-21, which had just arrived at the space station in late October, bringing a new trio of astronauts.
With the departure of Shenzhou-21 six months before schedule, Tiangong’s three resident astronauts were left without a spacecraft, a safety risk the arrival of Shenzhou-22 will remove.
“This emergency launch is a first for China, but I hope it will be the last in humanity’s journey through space,” CMSA official He Yuanjun told CCTV.
Shenzhou-22 departed with spare parts for Tiangong, equipment to repair the window crack on the Shenzhou-20 vessel, which remains docked at the space station.
After arriving at the station, the spacecraft will remain docked until around April 2026, when it will be used to transport the crew of the Shenzhou-21 back to Earth, the space agency said. — Reuters
