Astronauts Inspect Shenzhou 20 Damage After Orbital Debris Incident

Two Chinese astronauts conducted an eight-hour spacewalk outside the Tiangong space station on Tuesday, December 9, 2025, to critically assess damage to the Shenzhou 20 return capsule sustained from orbital debris. Astronauts Zhang Lu and Wu Fei, the latter becoming the youngest Chinese national to perform an extravehicular activity (EVA), meticulously inspected and photographed the viewport windows that had been compromised. The operation, which concluded near 6:45 p.m. Beijing time, was a direct response to an incident that necessitated an emergency crew rotation, highlighting the increasing risk posed by space junk in low Earth orbit.

The China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) directed the EVA, which also included installing new debris protection for the station and replacing a temperature control adapter cover. The initial discovery of the damage occurred on November 5, 2025, one day before the original Shenzhou 20 crew was scheduled to return following a standard six-month mission that began in late April 2025. Crew members observed an anomaly, initially described as a triangular, paint-like mark on the viewport’s edge, which immediately halted the planned descent.

Specialists later confirmed the mark was a through-thickness crack, a finding that surprised the China Academy of Spacecraft Technology due to the capsule’s triple-layer protective structure. Jia Shijin, chief designer of the crewed spacecraft system, preliminarily suggested the impactor was a piece of debris smaller than a millimeter, yet its extreme velocity, estimated near 7.6 kilometers per second, caused a crack exceeding a centimeter in length. This structural breach rendered the Shenzhou 20 capsule unsafe for atmospheric reentry stresses, requiring an immediate contingency plan.

The original Shenzhou 20 crew returned safely aboard the Shenzhou 21 vehicle on November 14, 2025, after the Shenzhou 21 arrived on October 31, 2025, to facilitate the handover. This maneuver temporarily left the incoming Shenzhou 21 crew—Commander Zhang Lu, Wu Fei, and Zhang Hongzhang—without a dedicated emergency lifeboat for over ten days. To restore safety redundancy, the CMSA executed the fastest emergency launch in the program’s history, sending the uncrewed Shenzhou 22 spacecraft to the station on November 25, 2025, just 16 days after the incident was confirmed.

Launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center atop a Long March-2F rocket, Shenzhou 22 docked the same day, delivering over 600 kilograms of supplies, including tools to assess the cracked window, and providing the crew with a safe return vehicle. CMSA senior spokesman Ji Qiming stated that the Shenzhou 20 capsule must return uncrewed for detailed post-flight analysis, which is expected to provide valuable data on high-velocity impact effects. The incident has intensified global concern over orbital fragments, with the European Space Agency estimating over 15,100 tonnes of material currently circulate in space, prompting China to reportedly expand its space situational awareness networks.