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 means of getting back 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.

Shenzhou-22 was originally slated for a crewed launch in 2026. But it was launched early after a suspected space debris strike to the Shenzhou-20 return capsule made it unsafe for re-entry to Earth, leaving its crew briefly stranded.

The Shenzhou-20 team returned aboard Shenzhou-21 on November 14 — nine days later than planned — leaving their relief crew without a reliable return vehicle.

Recent Shenzhou missions have been used to crew China’s Tiangong space station, exchanging teams of three astronauts every six months.

The accelerated launch ensures Shenzhou-21 astronauts Zhang Lu, Wu Fei, and Zhang Hongzhang have a safe return option.

The three were “working normally and in good condition”, the China Manned Space Agency said on Monday before the Shenzhou-22 launch.

China is the third nation to put humans in orbit after the United States and the former Soviet Union. It has been excluded from the International Space Station since 2011, when the US banned Nasa from collaborating with Beijing.

It has since sought to bring other countries into its efforts and signed a deal with Pakistan in February to recruit the first foreign “taikonauts” — a term used for astronauts in China’s space programme.