A Chinese space crew has been stranded on the Tiangong space station after small pieces of space debris were believed to have hit their reentry capsule, the Chinese space agency said on Wednesday.
The three-member Shenzhou-20 team was scheduled to return to Earth on Wednesday, but their mission has been temporarily extended as engineers conduct impact analyzes and risk assessments on the damaged spacecraft, the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) said in a statement.
Their return date has been postponed indefinitely, according to state broadcaster CCTV, which gave no further details.
The crew’s reentry capsule is believed to have been struck by small fragments of space debris – an increasing hazard in low Earth orbit. CMSA did not specify the extent of the damage or what repairs, if any, will be needed. If the spacecraft cannot be repaired, the protocol states that the Shenzhou-20 crew will use the Shenzhou-21 team’s capsule to return to Earth.
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Astronauts, from left, Wang Jie, Chen Zhongrui and Chen Dong, wave during a departure ceremony before boarding the Shenzhou-20 spacecraft at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China on April 24, 2025. (Pedro Pardo/AFP via Getty Images)
The Shenzhou program regularly sends crews of three Chinese astronauts to and from the Tiangong Space Station for six-month missions, where they perform tasks ranging from scientific experiments to repairing debris damage.
The Shenzhou-20 astronauts – mission commander Chen Dong, fighter pilot Chen Zhongrui and engineer Wang Jie – arrived in Tiangong in April for a six-month rotation. They were nearing the end of their mission when the problem occurred.
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Their replacements, part of the Shenzhou-21 mission, successfully docked at the station on Saturday. That crew consists of astronauts Zhang Hongzhang, Wu Fei and Zhang Lu.
Chinese astronauts for the Shenzhou-21 mission, from left to right, Zhang Hongzhang, Wu Fei and Zhang Lu wave as they attend a farewell ceremony at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in China, Friday, October 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
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Since launching its human spaceflight program in 2003, China has steadily expanded its capabilities, building its own space station and setting its sights on landing astronauts on the moon by 2030.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
