{"id":116717,"date":"2025-11-05T12:38:17","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T12:38:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/116717\/"},"modified":"2025-11-05T12:38:17","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T12:38:17","slug":"chinas-shenzhou-20-return-mission-delayed-due-to-space-debris-impact","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/116717\/","title":{"rendered":"China’s Shenzhou-20 return mission delayed due to space debris impact"},"content":{"rendered":"

BEIJING \u2014 China\u2019s Shenzhou-20 crewed spacecraft<\/a> has delayed its return mission to Earth after the vessel was possibly hit by tiny bits of space debris<\/a>, the country\u2019s human spaceflight agency said Wednesday, an unusual situation that could disrupt the operation of the country\u2019s space station Tiangong<\/a>.<\/p>\n

An impact analysis and risk assessment are underway, the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) said in a brief statement, without providing any new schedule for the return mission, which was originally set to land in northern China<\/a> on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The delay highlights the danger to space travel posed by increasing amounts of space debris. The debris, also called space junk, consists of discarded launch vehicles or parts of a vessel that float around in space hundreds of miles above the Earth, risking collisions with countries\u2019 active assets.<\/p>\n

The Shenzhou program takes trios of Chinese astronauts to and from Tiangong for six-month stays where they perform a variety of tasks, including repairing damage to the station caused by debris impact.<\/p>\n

The Shenzhou-19 crew\u2019s return mission in April was delayed by one day due to weather conditions at the landing site. But this is the first time that a return mission has been delayed by space debris.<\/p>\n

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The CMSA did not say whether Shenzhou-20 was hit by debris mid-flight or while it was still aboard Tiangong, where the Shenzhou-21 is also currently docked after arriving last week. The crews of both vessels are currently in a handover period of several days. The statement did not mention Tiangong or Shenzhou-21.<\/p>\n

According to well-established protocols, if the damage to Shenzhou-20 cannot be repaired aboard Tiangong, Shenzhou-21 will be used to transport the previous crew back to Earth.<\/p>\n

In the event both vessels are damaged beyond repair, a backup Shenzhou spacecraft would be sent from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China.<\/p>\n

A backup Long March-2F rocket and Shenzhou spacecraft are always on standby at the launch center in the event of an in-orbit emergency.<\/p>\n

While the delay could be short, there are cases of astronauts getting stuck in space after unexpected issues arise. Last year, technical issues affecting a Boeing Starliner spacecraft forced two NASA astronauts it brought to the International Space Station to stay there for nine months<\/a> as they waited for an alternative vessel to bring them home.<\/p>\n

The rapid increase in space junk in recent years has led to growing calls for cooperation on managing space traffic.<\/p>\n

At a forum last year, Chinese President Xi Jinping<\/a> called on Chinese and Arab countries to jointly build a \u201cspace debris observation center.\u201d<\/p>\n

A United Nations panel on space traffic coordination said last year that urgent action was necessary, calling for a shared database of orbital objects as well as an international framework to track and manage them.<\/p>\n

China in 2021 complained to the U.N. that Tiangong had to perform two emergency avoidance maneuvers to avoid fragments produced by Starlink satellites, owned by Elon Musk<\/a>\u2019s SpaceX, which predominate in the Earth\u2019s lower orbital paths.<\/p>\n

Beijing and Washington have for years traded accusations of debris-creating behavior.<\/p>\n

\u201cA certain superpower, being the first country to conduct anti-satellite weapon tests in outer space, has carried out more such tests and created more space debris than any other country,\u201d China\u2019s permanent mission to the U.N. wrote in a 2022 document, referring to the United States.<\/p>\n

The U.S. called a Chinese anti-satellite missile test in 2007 \u201cirresponsible\u201d after it destroyed a satellite in polar orbit and created a massive debris field.<\/p>\n

China has invested in technologies that could be used to reduce the risk of a space collision caused by debris.<\/p>\n

This includes deorbiting \u201csails,\u201d which once unfolded can cause the attached spacecraft to speed up its descent into the Earth\u2019s atmosphere, causing it to burn up without leaving space debris.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BEIJING \u2014 China\u2019s Shenzhou-20 crewed spacecraft has delayed its return mission to Earth after the vessel was possibly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":116718,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[85,46,141,145],"class_list":{"0":"post-116717","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-space"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116717\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}