China has rushed to launch an uncrewed spacecraft to relieve three astronauts left on board the Tiangong space station without a passage to Earth.

State broadcaster CCTV showed a Long March-2F rocket carrying the Shenzhou-22 spacecraft lifting off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre shortly after noon local time (04:00 GMT) on Tuesday.

The Shenzhou-22 mission was originally planned to be crewed and take off in 2026.

However, the launch was brought forward after debris damaged the Shenzhou-20, which is currently attached to the Tiangong station, making it unsafe for carrying humans to Earth.

That disrupted the last crew change on the permanently crewed Chinese space station in November.

Unable to fly home in Shenzhou-20, the three taikonauts – as Chinese astronauts are known – wh

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