Space junk may have struck a Chinese crew ship in low-Earth orbit

"Three Chinese astronauts were due to depart the Tiangong space station, reenter the atmosphere, and land in the remote desert of Inner Mongolia on Wednesday. Instead, officials ordered the crew to remain at the station while engineers investigate a potential problem with their landing craft. The China Manned Space Agency, run by the country's military, announced the change late Tuesday in a brief statement posted to Weibo, the Chinese social media platform."

""The Shenzhou 20 manned spacecraft is suspected of being impacted by small space debris," the statement said. "Impact analysis and risk assessment are underway. 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 5, will be postponed." The Shenzhou 20 astronauts arrived at the Tiangong station in April. Their replacements on the Shenzhou 21 mission docked with Tiangong on Friday, temporarily raising the station's crew size to six people."

The Shenzhou 20 return was postponed after engineers identified a suspected impact by small space debris on the spacecraft. The China Manned Space Agency ordered the three astronauts to remain aboard Tiangong while impact analysis and risk assessment proceed. Shenzhou 20 arrived at Tiangong in April and conducted joint operations with arriving Shenzhou 21 crew, briefly raising station occupancy to six and completing a handover. Officials have not specified which module may be damaged, what evidence indicated debris impact, or how long departure will be delayed. The spacecraft separates into three modules before reentry; only the landing capsule returns under parachutes.

Read at Ars Technica