Quick take: Three taikonauts — Zhang Lu, Wu Fei and Zhang Hongzhang — remain aboard the Tiangong space station after the Shenzhou-20 crew used the Shenzhou-21 capsule to return home when debris cracked Shenzhou-20’s viewing window. The Shenzhou-20 crew completed a 204-day mission. Unconfirmed reports say China may launch an unmanned return capsule later this month to restore an emergency evacuation option, though officials have released limited information.
Three Taikonauts Remain Aboard Tiangong After Rescue Swap Uses Their Capsule
Quick take: Three taikonauts — Zhang Lu, Wu Fei and Zhang Hongzhang — remain aboard the Tiangong space station after the Shenzhou-20 crew used the Shenzhou-21 capsule to return home when debris cracked Shenzhou-20’s viewing window. The Shenzhou-20 crew completed a 204-day mission. Unconfirmed reports say China may launch an unmanned return capsule later this month to restore an emergency evacuation option, though officials have released limited information.
08:46 AM, 11/20/2025Science
Three Chinese astronauts, commonly called taikonauts, remain aboard the Tiangong space station after a routine crew handover left them without their originally assigned return vehicle.
Zhang Lu, Wu Fei and Zhang Hongzhang are the crew of Shenzhou-21, which launched to relieve the Shenzhou-20 team of Wang Jie, Chen Zhongrui and Chen Dong. Following the handover, a piece of orbital debris struck the Shenzhou-20 spacecraft and cracked its viewing window, rendering that vehicle unsuitable for the planned return to Earth.
Because of that damage, the Shenzhou-20 crew boarded the Shenzhou-21 capsule and returned home after completing a 204-day mission — the longest single-duration flight on record by taikonauts. That decision left Zhang, Wu and Zhang on Tiangong without their originally assigned spacecraft and without an immediately available evacuation vehicle in the event of an emergency.
How unusual is this? The situation has drawn comparisons to an earlier case on the International Space Station, when astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams stayed longer than planned after technical problems with Boeing’s Starliner test vehicle made that capsule unsafe for return. A key difference: Wilmore and Williams were never truly without an evacuation option because other operational crew vehicles remained docked at the ISS.
Chinese officials provide limited public detail about human spaceflight operations, and the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) has not publicly explained why the Shenzhou-20 crew returned before another vehicle was available. Unconfirmed reports indicate CMSA may launch an unmanned return capsule to Tiangong later this month to restore a contingency ride for the station crew.
Possible explanations for the sequence of events include a determination that the damaged Shenzhou-20 capsule was still serviceable for emergency use, operational constraints that made accommodating six crew on Tiangong difficult, or other programmatic decisions not disclosed publicly. CMSA has previously rejected the idea that Tiangong could not safely house six crew, but official details remain limited.
For now, mission planners appear to be monitoring the situation and assessing options to ensure crew safety. Observers say an unmanned capsule launch would be the most direct way to restore an emergency return capability if CMSA proceeds as some reports suggest.