People all across the world are asking Elon Musk to save three Chinese astronauts who are stuck in orbit after their return capsule was hit by a “unknown object.”
In April, Senior Colonel Chen Dong and crew members Colonel Chen Zhongrui and Colonel Wang Jie launched to China’s Tiangong space station. They were supposed to come back home on November 5.
But this week, officials said that their spacecraft may have been damaged while it was parked in orbit for the past six months.
Chinese officials don’t know what hit the ship, but they think space debris, which is basically rubbish that has been drifting around the Earth since prior space missions and rocket launches, is to blame for the damage.
The Shenzhou-20 team’s issue has brought up memories of NASA’s two astronauts, Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, who were stuck on the International Space Station (ISS) last year because a capsule broke down.
Many people online now think that Musk’s SpaceX may once again be humanity’s best chance, thanks to the rescue they did.
“Send Elon,” one person wrote on X. Someone else wrote, “Who are you going to call when you’re stuck in space?” SpaceX and Elon Musk.
Yu Jun, an aerospace scientist and scientific writer who goes by Steed’s Scarf online, said that if officials decide the damaged spacecraft is too dangerous to bring back, they will probably go to “plan B,” which may include launching a backup return ship from Earth.
(L-R) Astronauts Wang Jie, Chen Dong, and Chen Zhongrui are stuck on the Chinese space station Tiangong until their return vehicle can be fixed.
The Shenzhou-20 team left for China’s Tiangong space station in April and was supposed to come back on November 5.
“Shenzhou-22 and the Long March 2F [launcher] were already ready to go.” “This is our rolling backup mechanism,” Jun informed his more than five million Weibo followers.
“They are in “emergency duty” mode and ready to bring our astronauts home safely if needed.”
This mission is China’s 15th crewed spaceflight and the ninth team to live and work on Tiangong, which is the only space station in the world that is currently operated by one country.
It has a modular construction, and the parts are linked while the spacecraft is in orbit between 210 and 280 miles above the Earth’s surface. The ISS, which is run by NASA, is 250 miles above the ground.
A US legislation from 2011 says that NASA can’t work with China on the ISS because of national security and other difficulties. This is why China built, launched, and runs its own station.
In 2021, the country sent Tiangong into space, where it normally holds three astronauts at a time.
But right now there are six because the team’s replacements got there before the damage to the returning capsule was known.
Some people on social media are begging Musk to aid the astronauts, while others have pointed out that SpaceX’s capsules won’t fit in China’s station.
People all across the world are asking Elon Musk to save three Chinese astronauts who are stuck in orbit after their return capsule was hit by a “unknown object.”
A worldwide call is rising for Elon Musk to step in and save three Chinese astronauts who are stuck in space after their return capsule was hit by a “unknown object.”
The Tiangong is made up of several parts that are joined when it orbits between 210 and 280 miles above the Earth’s surface. The ISS, which is run by NASA, is 250 miles above the ground.
This happened more than a year after NASA’s astronauts had a similar problem when Boeing’s Starliner capsule broke down on its way to the ISS last June.
They got stuck in space because their own spaceship had propulsion problems that made it impossible for them to return.
They were given new jobs on the Crew-9 mission, which came to the ISS in September with only two crew members to return them home.
After 287 days on the SpaceX Dragon Freedom spaceship, Williams and Wilmore eventually made it back safely off the coast of Tallahassee, Florida, on March 19.
The recovery ships met the capsule on its way back, which took around 17 hours.
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