Three Astronauts Are Stranded In Space Again, After Their Ride Home Was Struck By Space Junk

In June 2024, astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore became temporarily stuck on the International Space Station (ISS) after the ship they rode in on – the Boeing Starliner – malfunctioned. 

The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.

Though the two stressed that they signed up for the mission knowing that delays are possible, and that they did not resent the extra time in orbit around the Earth, they were forced to remain behind a lot longer than they were expecting. Rather than eight days, the two remained on board for nine months, waiting for the next mission to relieve them of their duties and return them to the Earth.

Unfortunately, three more astronauts are about to learn how being stranded in space feels, after a piece of space debris appears to have struck their ride home. Astronauts Wang Jie, Chen Zhongrui, and Chen Dong departed for China's Tiangong space station in April 2025. Just like on the ISS, astronauts aboard the station remain there for around six months, participating in research projects and conducting any work needed on the orbiting laboratory.

Near the end of their mission, on October 31, the replacement crew arrived on the Shenzhou-21 spacecraft. The plan was to return the Shenzhou-20 mission on November 5, but this has been delayed after an incident that may have involved space debris.

"The Shenzhou-20 manned spacecraft is suspected of being struck by small space debris, and impact analysis and risk assessment are underway," the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) said in a statement posted to Chinese social media site Weibo. 

"To ensure the safety and health of the astronauts and the complete success of the mission, it has been decided that the Shenzhou-20 return mission, originally scheduled for November 5th, will be postponed."

Space debris is slowly becoming a bigger problem. We are a messy species, and low-Earth orbit is apparently no exception to our "I'll clean that up later" rule. There are several missions specifically looking into how to clean up space debris, given the threat that it can pose to humanity's space stations and satellites. The threat is not hypothetical, and NASA has already had to perform several emergency maneuvers to move the International Space Station out of the path of debris.

Though we are by no means there yet, one concern is the "Kessler effect" or "Kessler syndrome", named for American astrophysicist Don Kessler who first suggested the idea in the 1970s.

Simply put, the Kessler Effect is where a single event (such as an explosion of a satellite) in low-Earth orbit creates a chain reaction, as debris destroys other objects in orbit. Should this happen, the debris could keep colliding with other objects, potentially causing communication problems and leaving areas of space inaccessible to spacecraft. Essentially, it could end up like the film Gravity, but with less George Clooney doing great eyebrow work and more, "Hey what happened to my GPS?" At worst, some speculate it could essentially trap us here on Earth, unable to leave. 

That is (fingers crossed) a long way off, especially if we are able to mitigate debris through controlled deorbits and even collecting loose space junk. But the Shenzhou-20 incident shows that real problems from space debris are already here.

It is not yet clear when the crew will return to Earth, or whether it will be on the original ship, still docked to the space station. But, thanks to a new oven freshly delivered to the space station, at least they will be able to enjoy barbecue during their extended stay.