During its time docked at the Tiangong space station, the Shenzhou-20 return capsule developed tiny cracks in its viewport window, which China’s space agency says were most likely caused by an impact from orbital debris. Because of this damage, the capsule does not meet the safety requirements for a crewed return, so the three Shenzhou-20 astronauts Chen Dong, Chen Zhongrui, and Wang Jie remained on Tiangong while a risk assessment was carried out. Their originally scheduled landing on November 5th was postponed.

To bring them home safely, they returned aboard the Shenzhou-21 spacecraft instead, which had recently brought up a new crew consisting of Zhang Lu, Wu Fei, and Zhang Hongzhang. Meanwhile, the Shenzhou-20 spacecraft remains docked at the station to conduct relevant experiments rather than being used for reentry.

To restore a safe way for the crew to return home, China will launch Shenzhou-22 uncrewed so it can take over as the station’s replacement return capsule. Once Shenzhou-22 docks, it will later return Zhang Lu, Wu Fei, and Zhang Hongzhang, the Shenzhou-21 crew, to Earth.

Specs

Launch mass: 8,100 kg (17,900 lb)

Dimensions: 9.25 m x 2.8 m (30.3 ft x 9.2 ft)

Volume: Total: 14.8 m3 (520 cu ft) Habitable: 7 m3 (250 cu ft)

Photo courtesy of China National Space Administration/Supercluster.

The Chang Zheng 2F is China’s first rocket built to carry humans.

Its nickname, Shenjian, means “Divine Arrow.”

The rocket is a heavily modified version of the Chang Zheng 2E. China added redundant systems to help improve safety and changed parts of the rocket to be able to fly with a launch escape system.

At liftoff, the first stage is helped by four boosters bolted to its side. A second stage then places Shenzhou into a low Earth orbit.

It uses two highly toxic propellants, nitrogen tetroxide and unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine.

The rocket will eventually be replaced by the now-flying Chang Zheng 7 rocket, which uses non-toxic propellant and launches over the open ocean.

Chang Zheng 2F has never suffered a launch failure.

Specs

Height: 62 m (203 ft)

Diameter: 3.35 m (11.0 ft)

Mass: 464,000 kg (1,023,000 lb)

Stages: 2

South Launch Site 1 (SLS-1) is located within Launch Area 4 at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center.

The pad is only used to launch the Chang Zheng 2F rocket and is the only place in China that can launch humans to space.

The rocket is stacked and prepared for launch in a large, vertical building nearby before being rolled out to the launch pad.

Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center

Also called the Shuangchengzi Missile Test Center, Jiuquan was the first of China’s four space centers.

Located in the desert, the area was first chosen in 1958 for its remote location and military nature.

This means that rockets launched from Jiuquan must fly over land and populated areas on their way to space.

Jiuquan was the site of China’s first satellite launch in 1970 and China’s first private orbital launch in July 2019.

This is the Tiangong Space Station, China's large, in-space construction project that will take two years to complete.

The station will have three modules for a crew of three to live and work and will have three sets of solar arrays for power.

It will be one-fifth the size of the International Space Station when complete and about the same size as the former Mir space station.

Construction began with the launch of the Tianhe module on April 29th, 2021.

A second module, Wentian, is planned to launch in July 2022, followed by the Mengtian module in October 2022.

Tiangong is in a 41-degree orbit, meaning it travels as far North as 41 degrees and as far South as 41 degrees latitude when seen from the ground.

It is designed to operate for at least 10 years.

Picture: China Manned Space Engineering Office

Download the Supercluster app to track spacecraft traffic and view crewmembers aboard China’s Tiangong Space Station and the International Space Station.

Alternatively, you can use the web version of our Stations Dashboard on Supercluster’s website.

As China expands its space station, we’ve seen an increase in orbital traffic, with a regular crew of astronauts. It’s a sign of the science fiction-like era we’re living in that we’ve (happily) been forced to expand our space station tracking functionality.

In addition to tracking Tiangong, we’ll now be covering "Arrivals and Departures" for both stations through a new "Timetable" feature for crew rotations and cargo resupply missions.

You can also switch between the ISS and Tiangong to see their relative positions over Earth on our mini-map. And of course, Tiangong is fully integrated with the Astronaut Database.

A recent update allows users to enable push alerts to get notifications when space stations pass over their location.