China has delayed the return of a crewed mission to the country’s space station over fears that the astronaut’s spacecraft has been struck by space debris. The craft was supposed to return to Earth on 5 November but the China Manned Space Agency says it will now carry out an impact analysis and risk assessment before making any further decisions about when the astonauts will return.
The Shenzhou programme involves taking astronauts to and from China’s Tiangong space station, which was constructed in 2022, for six-month stays.
Shenzhou-20, carrying three crew, launched on 24 April from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on board a Long March 2F rocket. Once docked with Tiangong the three-member crew of Shenzhou-19 began handing over control of the station to the crew of Shenzhou-20 before they returned to Earth on 30 April.
The three-member crew of Shenzhou-21 launched on 31 October and underwent the same hand-over process with the crew of Shenzhou-20 before they were set to return to Earth on Wednesday.
Yet pre-operation checks revealed that the craft had been hit by “a small piece of debris” with the location and scale of the damage to Shenzhou-20 having not been released. China embarks on a decade of human space exploration
If the craft is deemed unsafe following the assessment, it is possible that the crew of Shenzhou-20 will return to Earth aboard Shenzhou-21. Another option is to launch a back-up Shenzhou spacecraft, which remains on stand-by and could be launched within eight days.
Space debris is of increasing concern and this marks the first time that a crewed craft has been delayed due to a potential space debris impact. In 2021, for example, China noted that Tiangong had to perform two emergency avoidance manoeuvres to avoid fragments produced by Starlink satellites that were launched by SpaceX.
- For more on the impact of space debris, sign-up for a Physics World Live event on “Space junk – and how to solve it” on 10 November at 9 p.m. GMT.
