China conducted an urgent unmanned spacecraft launch on Tuesday after damage to a previous mission’s return capsule left the crew on its space station without a way to return to Earth. The Long March-2F rocket carrying Shenzhou-22 lifted off shortly after midday from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in northwest China, footage from state broadcaster CCTV showed. Recent Shenzhou missions have been used to crew China’s Tiangong space station, exchanging teams of three astronauts every six months.
