Spacex And Musk Called On To Rescue China’s Shenzhou 20 Crew

SpaceX and Elon Musk are once again being called upon to rescue spacefarers — this time, the Chinese crew of Shenzhou-20, delayed on China’s Tiangong space station after suspected space debris damage.

The three-person crew including Chen Dong, Chen Zhongrui, and Wang Jie, arrived in April and were supposed to return in November after a handover with the Shenzhou-21 crew. That return has been postponed while engineers assess potential damage from what reports describe as “a tiny piece of space debris.”

SpaceX fans quickly began calling for a rescue mission. Earlier this year, US President Donald Trump instructed Musk to “go get” the crew of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, whom Trump claimed were “virtually abandoned” by the Biden administration. Rather than correct the misunderstanding, Musk pledged SpaceX would bring back the “stranded” astronauts.

A Chinese rescue mission is improbable as the Shenzhou-20 crew faces no immediate danger and China could simply launch Shenzhou-22 earlier as a replacement, if needed.

The situation is not without precedent. In 2022, a Soyuz spacecraft attached to the International Space Station (ISS) was struck by a micrometeor, and an uncrewed replacement vehicle was launched to ferry the ‘nauts back to Earth. At the time, NASA explored the possibility of bringing the Soyuz crew back on a SpaceX spacecraft, but the option was deemed unnecessary.

Is a rescue mission for the Shenzhou-20 team using a Crew Dragon even feasible? The next Crew Dragon launch is currently scheduled for around March or April 2026 – the NASA Crew-12 mission to the ISS. The following one, set for June 2026, is to service the Vast-1 space station. One of those missions would need to be rescheduled to free up a spacecraft, as SpaceX does not have a fleet on standby in case of an emergency.

Then there is docking. Despite claims China copied the docking system used by SpaceX and the ISS – published international standards are readily available – China’s orbital implementation likely won’t mate with Crew Dragon hardware.

So a spacewalk then? SpaceX demonstrated EVA capability in 2024 when Jared Isaacman exited through Crew Dragon’s nose. However the Chinese crew’s launch suits aren’t spacewalk-rated, and while Tiangong has Feitian EVA suits, they’re incompatible with SpaceX systems — and might not even fit through Crew Dragon’s hatch.

Then there is the whole political heat such a mission would generate. It is difficult to imagine a US rocket company and China cooperating in this way.

If Shenzhou-20 can’t fly, it is more likely Shenzhou-22 will be launched as a replacement. The Tiangong space station was not designed to host a crew of more than three for extended stays.

The incident, which comes less than a year after SpaceX’s “rescue” of the Boeing crew, underscores two increasingly critical issues: spaceflight systems need to be standardized to enable cross-nation rescues, and space debris is becoming impossible to ignore.

The irony wouldn’t be lost on Reg readers if the debris that – possibly – struck Shenzhou-20 originated from a Chinese anti-satellite weapon (ASAT) test years ago. ®

Original Source