SpaceX and Elon Musk are once again being called upon to rescue spacefarers \u2014 this time, the Chinese crew of Shenzhou-20, delayed on China’s Tiangong space station after suspected space debris damage.<\/p>\n
The three-person crew including Chen Dong, Chen Zhongrui, and Wang Jie, arrived in April and were supposed to return in November after a handover with the Shenzhou-21 crew. That return has been postponed while engineers assess potential damage from what reports<\/a> describe as “a tiny piece of space debris.”<\/p>\n SpaceX fans quickly began calling<\/a> for a rescue mission. Earlier this year, US President Donald Trump instructed<\/a> Musk to “go get” the crew of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, whom Trump claimed were “virtually abandoned” by the Biden administration. Rather than correct the misunderstanding, Musk pledged SpaceX would bring back the “stranded” astronauts.<\/p>\n A Chinese rescue mission is improbable as the Shenzhou-20 crew faces no immediate danger and China could simply launch Shenzhou-22 earlier<\/a> as a replacement, if needed.<\/p>\n The situation is not without precedent. In 2022, a Soyuz spacecraft attached to the International Space Station (ISS) was struck<\/a> by a micrometeor, and an uncrewed replacement<\/a> vehicle was launched to ferry the ‘nauts back to Earth. At the time, NASA explored the possibility of bringing the Soyuz crew back on a SpaceX spacecraft, but the option was deemed unnecessary.<\/p>\n Is a rescue mission for the Shenzhou-20 team using a Crew Dragon even feasible? The next Crew Dragon launch is currently scheduled for around March or April 2026 – the NASA Crew-12 mission to the ISS. The following one, set for June 2026, is to service the Vast-1 space station. One of those missions would need to be rescheduled to free up a spacecraft, as SpaceX does not have a fleet on standby in case of an emergency.<\/p>\n Then there is docking. Despite claims China copied the docking system used by SpaceX and the ISS – published international standards<\/a> are readily available – China’s orbital implementation likely won’t mate with Crew Dragon hardware.<\/p>\n