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By Eduardo Baptista<\/p>\n
BEIJING (Reuters) -China has begun preparations to send a Shenzhou spacecraft to its permanently inhabited space \u200bstation ahead of schedule, state broadcaster CCTV reported on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Shenzhou-\u200c22 is being sent without anyone on board to the Tiangong space station six months ahead \u200cof its planned launch in order to put China’s manned space programme back on track.<\/p>\n
The Shenzhou missions have run like clockwork since 2021 until ten days ago when Shenzhou-20 was damaged while docked at Tiangong, forcing \u2060its three-person crew to \u200cstay an extra nine days along with another trio of astronauts.<\/p>\n
On Friday, the Shenzhou-20 crew boarded the Shenzhou-\u200d21 spacecraft and successfully returned to Earth, leaving the newly arrived trio of astronauts who had arrived two weeks ago without a vessel that could take them home \u200bin the event of an emergency.<\/p>\n
Shenzhou-22 is being sent ahead \u200cof schedule to plug this security risk and allow the Shenzhou-21 crew to return to Earth around April 2026, once they complete their half-year shift.<\/p>\n
“Preparations for the Shenzhou-22 mission have commenced. The spacecraft will carry a full cargo load, including astronaut provisions and equipment \u2060for the space station,” CCTV \u200breported.<\/p>\n
Tiangong has a maximum capacity of six crew,\u200b but this can only be temporarily sustained as the facility is designed to host three astronauts for six months.<\/p>\n
China \u200dhas not yet \u2060announced what will happen to the damaged Shenzhou-20, which is suspected to have been hit by space debris, slightly cracking the \u2060window of the its return capsule.<\/p>\n
Experts have suggested the vessel could be undocked from Tiangong \u200cand deorbited over the Pacific.<\/p>\n
(Reporting by Eduardo \u200cBaptista; Editing by Alexander Smith)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n