Lifeboat docks with Tiangong after cracked capsule triggers emergency rendezvous

China's uncrewed Shenzhou-22 spacecraft has successfully docked with the Tiangong space station, providing relief to the crew who were relying on a damaged capsule with a cracked window as their only ride home. Shenzhou-22 was launched at 4.11 am UTC on Tuesday, November 25, from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in …

[JimmyPage]

Real science

and engineering ... top marks

[Bebu sa Ware]

"repair kit for a cracked window on the Shenzhou-20 spacecraft."

I assume the repair kit will allow the recovery of the patched Shenzhou-20 to return to Earth uncrewed ?

The whole episode demonstrates a maturity in the Chinese manned space program that was once the hallmark of NASA.

The right stuff. ✓

[tmTM]

Re: "repair kit for a cracked window on the Shenzhou-20 spacecraft."

Great opportunity to test out the repair kit for real though.

[Lazlo Woodbine]

"it was loaded with fresh supplies and a repair kit for a cracked window on the Shenzhou-20 spacecraft."

A roll of duct tape?

[Yorick Hunt]

"A roll of duct tape?“

This isn't Blue Origin or Virgin Galactic.

[werdsmith]

NASA Approved Supplies: Duct Tape

"Astronauts don't leave earth without it...."

[Jan 0]

Created 2016, sold as a museum souvenir.

[werdsmith]

"Created 2016, sold as a museum souvenir."

Astronauts don’t leave Earth without it. Duct tape is handy for repairs and, like Velcro, helps hold things in place. It is visible in many photographs of space crew activity and crew work areas

[WolfFan]

Houston, we have a problem

Y’all left out Apollo 13. And, my personal fav, Voskhod 2. Woof-woof-woof-AWOOO, there be wolves around your spacecraft. Get out the pistol, boys!

[Judge Mental]

Who is winning the space race?

You can't fault them on this. Yet another example of the west allowing the competition to get ahead of us.

[tip pc]

Re: Who is winning the space race?

umm, how so?

[martinusher]

Re: Who is winning the space race?

We're spinning our wheels trying to find ever more creative ways to stop China's progress while our own efforts become fragmented and starved of funds. (NASA isn't exactly in good shape, we're starving JPL and we've got a very tenuous pipeline of skilled workers to sustain future development.) There are a few bright spots like Space X'x reusable boosters but I'm expecting China to have them sooner rather than later.

The problems at Boeing with both their Starliner program and issues with commercial aircraft should be taken a lot more seriously than they have been. Currently its seen only a matter of how it affects 'the market', not as an ingrained problem with how we organize industry, education and employment in the US.

[Anonymous John]

"a repair kit for a cracked window on the Shenzhou-20 spacecraft."

Putty?

[Sorry that handle is already taken.]

I'm thinking this

[Anonymous Coward]

Autoglass repair, autoglass replace!

[Spherical Cow]

No Littering Allowed

Sometimes shit happens and you have to deal with it, shit happened and they are dealing with it.

What I *REALLY* hope is now the Chinese will start to take space debris seriously, and implement their own rules for things like de-orbiting spent stages and not blowing stuff up on purpose.

Aside from that, I'm really impressed with their progress, space is hard and they are going places.

[Peter Gathercole]

Re: No Littering Allowed

I'm not sure I fully agree about space being hard. I certainly don't have the knowledge or means to do it, but most of the big problems had solutions found in the '60s, '70s and '80s, using the technology of those times. The fact that we've 'forgotten' how it was done does not mean that it has got any harder! (although space debris is a new and continuing problem.)

What wasn't fixed was making access to space economical, affordable or sustainable, and these are the problems that SpaceX, Blue Origin and others are trying to find solutions for. And I'm sure that some recent space fairing countries just don't care about these, they're just treating it as means of demonstrating their technical achievements.