Chinese astronauts make safe return after space debris scare
Three Chinese astronauts—Chen Dong, Chen Zhongrui, and Wang Jie—are back on Earth after wrapping up their stint at the Tiangong space station.
Their homecoming was pushed back from November 5 because a piece of space junk cracked their Shenzhou-20 return module.
Not to worry—they switched to Shenzhou-21 and landed safely at DongFeng on Thursday morning.
Why this matters
This was the first time a Shenzhou mission got delayed by space debris, highlighting just how risky orbit can be.
Even with the hiccup, everything on Tiangong kept running smoothly. China's already planning an uncrewed resupply mission (Shenzhou-22) to help manage all the traffic up there.
The smooth comeback shows China's serious about keeping astronauts safe and pushing forward with big plans for human spaceflight and science in orbit.