by WorldTribune Staff, November 7, 2025 Real World News
A Chinese space crew is stranded at the Tiangong space station after their return capsule was struck by space debris, according to China’s spaceflight agency.
The three astronauts – or taikonauts – were been scheduled to return to Earth on Wednesday, but their mission has been extended as engineers conduct impact analysis and risk assessments on the damaged spacecraft, the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) said in a statement.
The Shenzhou-20 astronauts – mission commander Chen Dong, fighter pilot Chen Zhongrui and engineer Wang Jie – arrived at Tiangong in April for a six-month rotation. They were nearing the end of their mission when the issue occurred, the agency said.
Some users on X proposed that Elon Musk send a SpaceX craft to rescue the stranded Chinese crew.
NASA’s Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, who were stranded aboard the International Space Station (ISS) last year after the Boeing Starliner capsule malfunctioned, were rescued by SpaceX.
One post on X noted: “When you’re stuck in space, who you gonna call? Elon Musk and SpaceX.”
Musk’s own AI bot Grok has explained how this is probably not going to happen:
“SpaceX lacks the capability to dock with Tiangong due to incompatible ports and international restrictions, making a direct rescue impractical. The astronauts’ return is delayed for safety inspections by the newly arrived Shenzhou-21 crew, but they’re not indefinitely stranded—China’s program has redundancies. Elon focuses on Mars, but perhaps Starship’s future iterations could enable cross-compatible ops someday.”
China’s space agency said the crew’s return date has been postponed indefinitely:
“The crew’s return capsule is believed to have been hit by tiny fragments of space junk – an increasing hazard in low Earth orbit. CMSA has not specified the extent of the damage or what repairs, if any, will be required. If the spacecraft cannot be repaired, protocol states the Shenzhou-20 crew will use the Shenzhou-21 team’s capsule to return to Earth.”
China’s astronauts are stuck in space; Who you gonna call? Not Elon, says Grok added by Editor Two on
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