Three astronauts returned to Earth on Friday after being stranded by a rare incident of space debris. The Chinese crew was taken to a different ship than originally assigned, leaving the other three astronauts without a return spacecraft.
The Shenzhou-20 astronauts, Chen Dong, Chen Zhongrui and Wang Jie, landed at the Dongfeng Landing Site in northern China at 3:30 a.m. Eastern Time, according to Chinese media outlets. The crew were originally scheduled to return on November 5, but damage to their spacecraft caused their journey home to be delayed by nine days. China’s Shenzhou-20 spacecraft was hit by a piece of space debris while docked at the Tiangong space station, resulting in small cracks on the return capsule’s approach window. The spacecraft was deemed unfit to carry astronauts to Earth, forcing the crew to board the Shenzhou-21 ship.
The apparent space junk disrupted China’s otherwise uninterrupted record of crew handovers over the past four years. Now, the Chinese space agency will have to adopt an alternative return procedure for the Shenzhou-21 crew, who are scheduled to return to Earth early next year. The crew currently in space has no means of returning to Earth in an emergency.
go home
China’s three-module space station, named Tiangong or “heavenly place”, welcomed its first crew on June 16, 2021. Although much smaller than the International Space Station (ISS), which has 16 modules, Tiangong is the only other space station in Earth orbit today.
The China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) aims to staff Tiangong with at least three astronauts at a time, maintaining a steady flow of crew heading into orbit for a six-month stint. So far, things have been great for the Chinese space station, with crew handovers occurring at perfect times over the past few years. However, that was until space junk hit one of its docked ships.
The Shenzhou-21 crew was launched on October 31. During a brief period of crew handover, the two Shenzhou capsules are docked at the space station. Due to damage to one of the capsules, the departing astronauts were forced to use the Shenzhou ship carrying the current crew to return home. This left the Shenzhou-21 astronauts, commander Zhang Lu, flight engineer Wu Fei and payload specialist Zhang Hongzhang stranded in space.
According to Reuters, China’s safety protocols include sending an unmanned rescue spacecraft to the space station to take astronauts back to Earth in an emergency. CMSA said it will launch the Shenzhou-22 spacecraft to the space station at an appropriate time in the future.
orbital junk
This incident highlights the increasing risk of space debris to ongoing orbital missions and astronaut safety. In 2023, Tiangong suffered a partial loss of power after space debris struck solar fans attached to the core module, forcing the astronauts to perform two spacewalks to repair the damage.
At the time, CMSA said it would take additional precautions to reduce the risks of space debris, including protective reinforcements for the space station’s hardware. As the amount of space debris orbiting Earth continues to grow, with an estimated 40,000 objects currently being tracked by space surveillance networks, this type of collision may be inevitable.