Three astronauts returned to Earth on Friday after being stranded due to a rare space debris incident. The Chinese crew was transported on board a different vessel than the one they were originally assigned, leaving another three astronauts with no return spacecraft.

The Shenzhou-20 astronauts, Chen Dong, Chen Zhongrui, and Wang Jie, touched down at the Dongfeng landing site in northern China at 3:30 a.m. ET, according to Chinese media outlets . The crew was originally due to return on November 5, but their trip home was delayed by nine days after their spacecraft was damaged. China’s Shenzhou-20 spacecraft was struck by a piece of space debris while docked to the Tiangong space station, resulting in tiny cracks on the return capsule’s viewpoint window. The spacecraft was deemed unfit

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