China Delays Shenzhou-20 Return After Space Debris Damage, Astronauts Safely Return in Shenzhou-21
Space travel today is no longer a sci-fi concept—it’s a reality that global superpowers push forward every single day. But what happened to China’s Shenzhou-20 astronauts has once again revealed the risky side of space technology. Three Chinese astronauts — Chen Dong, Chen Zhongrui, and Wang Jie — who had completed their mission on the Tiangong Space Station, were scheduled to return to Earth on November 5. However, during a routine inspection of their spacecraft, experts discovered something that immediately triggered a red alert: tiny cracks on the capsule. These cracks were not due to manufacturing faults — they were caused by space debris, tiny pieces of space junk that hit the spacecraft at extremely high speed. Even a 1 mm particle traveling in orbit can pierce metal. Because of this risk, China delayed the return mission, putting crew safety above everything else. Space Debris Is No Joke Right now, Earth’s orbit is filled with millions of small and large debris pieces — fragment...