Three Chinese astronauts returned safely from their nation's space station on Friday (November 14) after a delay of more than a week due to damage to their original return capsule. The damage was likely caused by space debris , according to China's Manned Space Agency. The astronauts, Chen Dong , Chen Zhongrui , and Wang Jie , had been on a six-month mission and were initially scheduled to return on November 5.

The team left their Shenzhou-20 spacecraft in orbit and used the newly arrived Shenzhou-21 to return to Earth. This spacecraft had previously transported a replacement crew to the Tiangong space station. It remains unclear if this change in spacecraft will affect the timing of future missions. The space agency announced that Shenzhou-22 will be launched, but did not provi

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