China's stranded astronauts returning from space station on spacecraft that brought new crew

BEIJING — Three Chinese astronauts stranded at their nation's space station after their spacecraft was apparently hit by space debris departed for home Friday using the craft that had brought a replacement crew, China's space agency said.

Their capsule was expected to land in a remote part of northwest China's Inner Mongolia region later the same day.

The astronauts were on a six-month rotation at the space station and had been originally scheduled to return Nov. 5, four days after the new crew arrived.

Their return was delayed for more than a week. China's Manned Space Engineering Office said there were minor cracks in a window of the return capsule of the Shenzhou-20 spacecraft, most likely caused by impact from space debris.

There are millions of pieces of mostly tiny debris circlin