Chinese spacecraft collided with debris. The taikonauts are now safe

China's Shenzhou-21 spacecraft has landed at the Dongfeng base in Inner Mongolia, northern China. The Taikonauts were scheduled to return nine days earlier on another ship, Shenzhou-20, but their return was delayed due to damage caused by a collision with space debris.

Three Taikonauts – Chen Dong, Chen Zhongrui and Wang Jie – were supposed to finish the mission at the Chinese Tiangong space station on November 5, but their return was postponed after damage to the Shenzhou-20 ship, on which they arrived at the station half a year earlier, was detected. As reported by the Xinhua agency, the ship was probably hit by small space debris and a crack was created in one of the windows, which – according to the assessment of the China Manned Spaceflight Agency (CMSA) – prevented safe entry into the atmosphere.

Due to the damage, it was decided that the crew would return to Earth on the Shenzhou-21 ship, which had brought a new team to Tiangong a few days earlier. CMSA said that Shenzhou-20 will remain in orbit and will be used to conduct experiments, and a reserve unit will be launched into space, prepared for launch at the launch center in Jiuquan.

This is the first time in the history of China's space program that the return of a mission to Earth had to be postponed due to damage caused by space debris. In 2021, the Tiangong station had to perform evasive maneuvers twice due to the risk of collisions with missile or satellite fragments. The International Space Station (ISS) and the American space shuttles used until 2011 were also repeatedly damaged by debris drifting in space.

Tiangong Station, completed in 2022, is one of two operational space stations, along with the ISS. Shenzhou's missions have become an expression of China's growing ambitions in space exploration and an element of building national prestige. In recent months, China broke the American record for the longest spacewalk, achieving a time of nine hours (the previous US record was 8 hours and 56 minutes). Next year they plan to open their station to foreign astronauts for the first time; A Pakistani is to visit it first. (PAP)

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