The taikonauts — Wang Jie, Chen Zhongrui, and Chen Dong, collectively known as the Shenzhou-20 crew — have been aboard the Tiangong space station since April 24. They were expected to return on Wednesday, November 5, following a successful handover of the station’s operations to the Shenzhou-21 crew, who arrived on Halloween (October 31). However, at around 10:30 a.m. local time on Wednesday, the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) confirmed via a statement on the Chinese social media platform Weibo that the astronauts’ return had been delayed.
The agency cited a collision with suspected space debris as the reason for the delay, adding that an “impact analysis and risk assessment” were underway to assess the damage and ensure the safety of all six taikonauts currently on the station. As of now, no further details have been provided regarding the extent of the damage to the return capsule or a timeline for when the crew will safely return to Earth.
The potentially damaged spacecraft is likely still docked to the Tiangong space station, where it has remained since delivering the Shenzhou-20 crew to the station in April. It is made up of three detachable sections — a power and propulsion module, crew living quarters, and a parachute-assisted return module, according to Ars Technica.
If any of these sections are deemed unsafe, the spacecraft will likely be ejected and returned to Earth without the astronauts. In this case, CNSA guidelines suggest that the Shenzhou-20 crew will return to Earth on board the Shenzhou-21 return module, which will, in turn, be replaced by another spacecraft that CMSA keeps on standby, according to Reuters.
