A few hours ago, the three Chinese taikonauts of the Shenzhou 22 mission returned to Earth after spending 210 days on the Tiangong space station, where they arrived on October 31, 2025, in the mission that started as Shenzhou 21. The three taikonauts, Zhang Lu, Wu Fei, and Zhang Hongzhang, had departed the station less than six hours earlier to land at a site called Dongfeng in China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.
The taikonauts of the Shenzhou 22 mission conducted a lot of experiments on the Tiangong space station, and several samples were returned to Earth. The experiments conducted in orbit concern the health of the crew members and many other scientific and technological fields, and the results must be analyzed in specialized laboratories.
Three spacewalks were conducted during the mission. In addition to installing instruments outside the Tiangong space station, the taikonauts inspected the Shenzhou-20 spacecraft. This is the spacecraft that was used to launch the previous mission, and it was necessary to assess the damage sustained from a probable debris impact from the outside. Only after the possible in-orbit examinations were completed did the Shenzhou-20 return to Earth without a crew.
The accident with the Shenzhou-20 spacecraft led to an emergency launch of the Shenzhou-22 and some structural modifications aimed at making these spacecraft more resistant to small debris impacts and therefore safer for astronauts.
Among the scientific experiments conducted aboard the Tiangong space station is the breeding of mice. The aim is to study the life cycles of mammals in a state of microgravity. A small rice farm is aimed at evaluating the life cycles of a plant important as a human food in the same state of microgravity. For this reason, small experimental crops of tomatoes and wheat have recently been added.
These and many other experiments are being conducted by the crews of the Tiangong space station. China has an ambitious space program, and many of the results are useful for improving direct knowledge of the reactions of humans, plants, and animals spending months or even years in space.
