Space junk delays astronauts returning home

Three astronauts who have been on a space station for the past 6 months will have to wait a little bit longer to get home.

It wasn’t bad space traffic that delayed them, but tiny bits of space debris causing trouble for astronauts Chen Dong, Chen Zhongrui and Wang Jie.

It’s suspected bits of space junk hit their return spacecraft – Shenzhou-20.

That means the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) is now doing lots of tests and assessments to make sure the ship is safe for the astronauts to use.