Nov. 14 (UPI) -- The stranded Chinese astronauts returned safely to Earth following a drift of space debris which left their return craft damaged.
The three returned home in the early Friday morning hours when the recently-launched Shenzhou-21 module touched down around 3:40 a.m. local time near its launch pad at Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center.
Shenzhou-21 undocked at 10:14 p.m. from Tiangong in orbit.
China's three astronauts returned on same spacecraft that launched their replacement Shenzhou-21 mission crew at the very end of October, and were extracted by recovery crew roughly 30 minutes later.
Related
