By 
December 2nd, 2025
Image credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
China has announced that the Shenzhou-20 spacecraft now docked with the country’s space station will make an uncrewed return to Earth.
Following a suspected debris strike on Shenzhou-20’s viewport, a trio of astronauts originally scheduled to return to Earth aboard the spacecraft were redirected to Shenzhou-21, which brought them home safely on November 14.
Billed as the first emergency launch in the history of its human spaceflight program, China launched the Shenzhou-22 on November 25 to provide a new return vehicle for the now orbiting crew.
Image credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Consensus view
“We eventually reached a consensus: there must have been a crack, a penetrating one that had gone through the glass, from the inner surface to the outer surface,” said Jia Shijin, chief designer of the crewed spaceship system from the China Academy of Space Technology.
A day prior to the Shenzhou-20 crew’s planned return on November 5, the taikonauts spotted an anomaly on the viewport’s edge: a triangular, paint-like mark. They photographed it from multiple angles and under different lights, while the orbital station’s robotic arm cameras were employed to take supplemental external pictures.
Cracked viewport
Jia said in an interview with China Media Group (CMG), broadcast on China Central Television (CCTV), that the now-in-orbit Shenzhou-21 crew may be tasked with inspecting the cracked viewport during a spacewalk.
Image credit: CMG/CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
They may also perform protective work on it using specialized devices, Jia added, delivered by the Shenzhou-22 launch. That procedure is still being validated in ground tests, he noted.
Jia said that when the window crack was found, ground teams conducted extensive simulations and tests, and commissioned two research institutions to perform wind tunnel tests for independent verification.
Uncrewed Shenzhou-22 loaded with supplies.
Image credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
High-speed gases
In a worst-case scenario, Jia explained, the cracks could spread, causing the outer pane to detach, with this leading to the failure of the inner pressure-sealing glass, resulting in cabin depressurization and the ingress of high-speed gases.
He said that further and more detailed investigation will be conducted after the return of the Shenzhou-20 spaceship.
“Through our initial assessment of the crack, we believe the space debris is less than one millimeter in size, but moving at a very high speed,” Jia told the CMG. “The entire crack is over 10 millimeters in size. From one corner, it looks like it has been pierced through.”
Go to this newly released video about the incident at:
Posted in Space News
Still no released images of the Actual ‘cracked’ window. 🙁