China Delays Spacecraft Return Indefinitely Over Debris Damage Fears

China News Service / YouTube

Given nan high-risk and high-profile quality of spaceflight, nary nationalist abstraction programme tin spend to return risks erstwhile ensuring nan information of its unit during missions. The China National Space Administration announced connected Wednesday that nan return of Shenzhou-20 from its Tiangong abstraction station has been delayed owed to suspected debris effect harm to nan spacecraft. The 3 taikonauts will stay successful abstraction without a group replacement return day while nan agency assesses nan situation.

China's abstraction agency initially planned for Shenzhou-20 to return connected November 5 pinch a parachute landing successful Inner Mongolia, concluding their six-month enactment successful debased Earth orbit. Coincidentally, nan ngo included spacewalks to instal further shielding onto Tiangong. Shenzhou-21 launched past Friday pinch nan scheduled replacement crew. According to CNN, a televised handover ceremonial had already taken spot pinch nan taikonauts group to return command.Shenzhou-20 commandant Chen Dong said, "We are astir to return to Earth, and now I americium handing complete nan hatch cardinal that symbolizes nan correct to support operations connected this Chinese abstraction position to you."

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Shenzhou-20's predicament sounds eerily akin to nan events that led up to nan Columbia disaster successful 2003. During nan fateful launch, a portion of foam collapsed disconnected nan Space Shuttle's outer vessel and struck nan near helping astatine complete 425 miles per hour. The resulting harm to nan orbiter's thermal protection tiles caused Columbia to disintegrate while re-entering nan atmosphere, sidesplitting each 7 astronauts onboard. The disaster grounded nan Space Shuttle for 2 years and highlighted nan request for abstraction agencies to beryllium vigilant successful their operations to mitigate information risks.

As crewed spaceflight becomes much frequent, it increases nan likelihood of a responsibility slipping done nan cracks and sparking a catastrophe. NASA had its ain debacle past twelvemonth during nan crewed trial formation of nan Boeing Starliner. Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were stuck connected nan International Space Station arsenic engineers connected nan crushed assessed nan persistent problems that plagued nan spacecraft during launch. Wilmore admitted that capable thrusters grounded that he mislaid afloat control during nan rendezvous pinch nan station. Eventually, NASA sent nan Starliner backmost autonomously while reorganizing a scheduled SpaceX Crew Dragon ngo to get Wilmore and Williams home.