China says its space station struck by small debris, delaying crew’s return

Beijing, Nov 5 (PTI) The scheduled return of the crew manning China’s space station on Wednesday has been put off due to a suspected impact from tiny space debris, the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) announced here.

The decision to delay the return aims to ensure the astronauts’ safety and mission success, the agency said.

China rotates the crew of the station every six months.

On Saturday, the Shenzhou-20 spaceship carrying the crew completed its in-orbit handover with the Shenzhou-21 crew and is scheduled to return to Earth on Wednesday.

The three-member crew who were manning the station held a handover ceremony and transferred the keys of the space station on Tuesday.

So far, the Shenzhou-20 trio—Chen Dong, Chen Zhongrui and Wang Jie—have completed all their planned tasks and are set to return to the Dongfeng landing site in north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region on Wednesday, according to the official media reports. Their return has been postponed.

China launched the Shenzhou-21 crewed spaceship on Friday last sending three astronauts to its orbiting space station on a six-month mission. PTI KJV GSP GSP