China delays astronauts' return from space station over space debris
China just hit pause on bringing home its three Tiangong space station astronauts, after a possible run-in with space junk.
The Shenzhou-20 crew was set to wrap up their six-month mission, but officials decided to delay their return to keep everyone safe.
Tiangong is currently one of only two fully active space stations in orbit—the other being the ISS.
Tiangong crew is keeping busy and staying positive
Space debris is becoming a bigger problem, with even tiny fragments packing enough punch to seriously damage spacecraft—a one-centimeter piece can hit as hard as a hand grenade when traveling at 16905km/h.
Incidents like Russia's 2021 anti-satellite test have only made things messier up there.
Despite these challenges, the Tiangong crew is keeping busy and staying positive (cooking helps!), but they're still waiting for an update on when they'll get to head home.