Chinese astronauts return from space station after delay blamed on space debris damage

Three Chinese astronauts stranded at their nation’s space station after their spacecraft was apparently hit by space debris departed for home Friday using the craft that had brought a replacement crew, China’s space agency said.

BEIJING — Three Chinese astronauts returned from their nation’s space station Friday after more than a week’s delay because their original return capsule was damaged, likely from being hit by space debris.

The team left their Shenzhou-20 spacecraft in orbit and came back using the recently arrived Shenzhou-21 that had ferried a three-person replacement crew to the station, China’s Manned Space Agency said.

It was unclear whether the change in spacecraft would affect the timing of future missions to the Tiangong space station. The space agency said that Shenzhou-22 would be launched but did not specify when.

The return capsule deployed a red-and-white-striped parachute before coming down in the late afternoon at a remote site in northern China’s Gobi Desert, about five and a half hours after leaving the space station. The impact sent up a large cloud of dust in the barren landscape.

The astronauts — Chen Dong, Chen Zhongrui and Wang Jie — had been on a six-month rotation and were originally scheduled to return Nov. 5, four days after the new crew arrived.