The China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) announced on Wednesday that the three-member crew of the Shenzhou-20 mission is currently unable to return to Earth from the Tiangong space station. The delay is due to suspected damage to their return capsule, believed to have been caused by small fragments of space debris.
The Shenzhou-20 team, consisting of mission commander Chen Dong, fighter pilot Chen Zhongrui, and engineer Wang Jie, was originally scheduled to return to Earth on the same day. However, the mission has been put on hold while engineers perform an impact analysis and risk assessments on the potentially damaged spacecraft.
The state broadcaster, CCTV, reported that the return date has been indefinitely postponed, but did not provide further details. The return capsule is thought to have been hit by small pieces of space junk, a growing problem in low Earth orbit. The CMSA has yet to provide specific details about the extent of the damage or the necessary repairs.
In the event that the spacecraft cannot be repaired, the Shenzhou-20 crew will utilize the return capsule of the Shenzhou-21 team, according to established protocol. The Shenzhou program regularly sends trios of Chinese astronauts to the Tiangong space station for six-month missions, where they conduct scientific experiments and repair any damage caused by debris.
The Shenzhou-20 astronauts arrived at the Tiangong space station in April for a six-month rotation. They were nearing the end of their mission when the incident occurred. Their replacements, the Shenzhou-21 team, successfully docked with the station on Saturday. This crew includes astronauts Zhang Hongzhang, Wu Fei, and Zhang Lu.
Since the inception of its crewed spaceflight program in 2003, China has been steadily enhancing its capabilities. The country has constructed its own space station and aims to land astronauts on the moon by 2030.