{"id":503497,"date":"2026-02-27T17:34:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T17:34:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/503497\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T17:34:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T17:34:13","slug":"damage-to-chinese-spacecraft-was-worse-than-reported","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/503497\/","title":{"rendered":"Damage to Chinese Spacecraft Was Worse Than Reported"},"content":{"rendered":"

In early November, Chinese astronauts on board the country\u2019s Tiangong space station made a terrifying discovery<\/a>. According to state news reports<\/a> at the time, they found \u201ctiny cracks\u201d in their Shenzhou return spacecraft\u2019s viewport window that were most likely the result of a collision with space debris.<\/p>\n

The alarming finding forced China\u2019s space agency to delay the affected crew\u2019s return, triggering a convoluted game of musical chairs<\/a> as the cracked spacecraft was deemed not safe enough for crewed flight. Fortunately, a replacement spacecraft that was sent to the station without a crew on board allowed the astronauts to safely return to the ground.<\/p>\n

Now, new details about the incident have emerged, revealing that the situation was even more serious than initially reported, with some cracks penetrating the spacecraft\u2019s window.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy first thought was whether a small leaf had somehow stuck to the outside of the window,\u201d said Shenzhou-20 crew member Chen Dong during a recent interview aired by China Central Television (CCTV), as quoted by Space.com<\/a>. \u201cBut then I quickly realized that couldn\u2019t happen because we were in space. How could there possibly be a fallen leaf there?\u201d<\/p>\n

The team used a \u201cpen-shaped microscope\u201d connected to a tablet to have a closer look.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe could see very clearly the small cracks [with the microscope],\u201d Chen recalled. \u201cSeveral were relatively long, and one was shorter. We could also see that some of the cracks had penetrated through.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fellow crew member Wang Jie, who worked as an aerospace technician before becoming an astronaut, said he \u201cwasn\u2019t really nervous,\u201d pointing out that the \u201coutermost layer of the viewport is a protective layer, and inside it there are two pressure-bearing layers, and we are safe as long as the cabin pressure doesn\u2019t change.\u201d<\/p>\n

To remedy the situation, the China National Space Administration said<\/a> in a statement that it had launched a \u201cporthole crack repair device\u201d along with its emergency spacecraft. \u201cAstronauts installed it inside the Shenzhou-20 capsule, effectively improving the spacecraft\u2019s heat protection and sealing capabilities during reentry.\u201d<\/p>\n

The space capsule with the cracked window ultimately landed without a crew on board<\/a> in Mongolia on January 19, concluding the incident. But even the landing wasn\u2019t exactly straightforward. Since no crew was able to separate the main parachute, teams on the ground were afraid the capsule would be dragged on the ground, so they had to act quickly, as officials explained during the recently televised interviews.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, the capsule\u2019s exterior post-reentry was \u201cgenerally normal,\u201d according to a CNSA statement<\/a> at the time.<\/p>\n

While no crew member appears to have been in any danger, the incident highlights how space junk continues to be a major problem<\/a> for humanity\u2019s presence in space. Especially as companies build out plans for enormous megaconstellations<\/a> of satellites, we\u2019re launching cargo to orbit at an unprecedented rate \u2014 which could risk cracking more than a viewport window in the near future as the Earth\u2019s orbit is turned into a minefield.<\/p>\n

More on the situation: Chinese Astronauts Clamber Outside Space Station to Inspect Damaged Spacecraft<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In early November, Chinese astronauts on board the country\u2019s Tiangong space station made a terrifying discovery. According to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":503498,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[49,48,126203,49880,76278,200948,66,306,200949,9694,45636],"class_list":{"0":"post-503497","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-chen-dong","11":"tag-china-central-television","12":"tag-china-national-space-administration","13":"tag-crew-member","14":"tag-science","15":"tag-space","16":"tag-space-capsule","17":"tag-space-debris","18":"tag-tiangong-space-station"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=503497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503497\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/503498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=503497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=503497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=503497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}