After the suspension, on November 5, of the return of three Chinese astronauts from the Shenzhou-20 mission, the China Manned Space Engineering Agency (CMSEA) confirmed that ground teams are conducting safety tests before authorizing re-entry.
The interruption occurred due to the risk of damage to the spacecraft caused by an orbital debris fragment. The crew had been scheduled to return four days after the arrival of the Shenzhou-21 team at the Tiangong space station, in line with the standard rotation protocol.
The CMSEA also reported that the Tiangong station has sufficient capacity to accommodate both crews simultaneously. During this extended period, all six astronauts are working together on ongoing scientific research aboard the station.
Shenzhou program: from Yang Liwei to permanent operations
The Shenzhou program marked a milestone in China’s space history on October 15, 2003, when the Shenzhou-5 mission carried Yang Liwei into orbit, making China the third nation, after the Soviet Union and the United States, to independently send a human into space. Yang spent 21 hours in orbit, circling Earth 14 times.
Now deputy chief designer of China’s human spaceflight program, Yang told BdF in an April 2024 interview that the country’s rapid aerospace development is partly due to the “latecomer advantage,” the ability to modernize by importing existing technologies, reducing research and development costs.
Scientific research aboard Tiangong
At the Tiangong space station, the taikonauts, China’s term for its astronauts, are conducting studies in life sciences, microgravity physics, space astronomy, and technological innovation, according to the Xinhua news agency.
Ongoing projects include research on mammalian development in space, material behavior in microgravity, combustion in space environments, and detection of high-energy cosmic rays. The crews are also performing around 90 experiments across fields ranging from medicine to physics, alongside maintenance tasks and enhanced debris-protection procedures.
From ISS exclusion to an independent space station
China began constructing its Tiangong orbital station in 2021 with the launch of the central module Tianhe. The project represented the culmination of an independent space strategy adopted after the country’s exclusion from the International Space Station (ISS) program in the 1990s, a political decision led by the United States. The ban was later formalized in 2011 through the Wolf Amendment, which prohibits NASA from bilateral cooperation with China.
Building a national space station was the third phase of Project 921, which established China’s human spaceflight program in 1992. The first phase aimed to send a crewed mission into space, achieved in 2003 with Yang Liwei. The second focused on extravehicular activity and spacecraft-docking technologies.
Tiangong reached its basic “T-shaped” configuration during the Shenzhou-14 mission (2022), when the Wentian and Mengtian modules were docked to Tianhe. Since then, the station has been permanently crewed through missions launched roughly every six months.
Key milestones and long-term goals
According to China’s Science Popularization Journal (Kēpǔ Shíbào), the program’s milestones include the first Chinese spacewalk by Zhai Zhigang (Shenzhou-7, 2008), the first live space class by taikonaut Wang Yaping (Shenzhou-10, 2013), and the first crew rotation in orbit (Shenzhou-15, 2022).
The Shenzhou-13 mission (2021) set a six-month record for continuous human presence in space while verifying key technologies for long-term operations.
In 2024, China achieved an unprecedented milestone by sending the Chang’e-6 probe to the Moon’s far side, returning to Earth with 1,935 grams of lunar samples, some of which were shared with the international scientific community.
Ironically, in November 2024, the U.S. Congress proposed the first exception to the Wolf Amendment, authorizing NASA to study samples collected by the earlier Chang’e-5 mission.
Wu Weiren, a member of the Standing Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and chief architect of China’s lunar exploration program, revealed in March 2022 that the fourth phase of the lunar program plans multiple landings at the Moon’s south pole before 2030, involving Chang’e-6, 7 and 8 missions. The goal is to build a basic model for an International Lunar Research Station at the south pole by 2035.
According to Wu, China’s long-term plan is to reach the outer edges of the solar system by 2049, including a Mars sample-return mission before 2030 and a deep-space mission extending 100 astronomical units, about 15 billion kilometers, from Earth.
*With information from Xinhua and the Science and Technology Daily.
