{"id":397118,"date":"2025-11-22T14:47:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-22T14:47:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/397118\/"},"modified":"2025-11-22T14:47:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-22T14:47:11","slug":"chinas-shenzhou-20-debris-crisis-a-catalyst-for-space-war-or-peace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/397118\/","title":{"rendered":"China\u2019s Shenzhou 20 debris crisis: a catalyst for space war \u2013 or peace?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">A tiny piece of debris triggered the most serious mishap at China\u2019s Tiangong space station since it became operational three years ago.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this month, a crack discovered on the Shenzhou-20 spacecraft\u2019s window forced <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/news\/china\/science\/article\/3332295\/china-preparing-bring-home-astronauts-stranded-tiangong-space-station?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"noopener\">three Chinese astronauts<\/a> to remain on board Tiangong for nine extra days and eventually borrow their newly arrived colleagues\u2019 ship to <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/news\/china\/science\/article\/3332719\/stranded-chinese-astronauts-return-earth-aboard-new-crews-spacecraft?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"noopener\">return to Earth<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The event underscores the growing threat posed by Earth\u2019s ever-expanding cloud of orbital junk \u2013 a scare that could push China, as well as other countries including the United States, to speed up their debris tracking and removal capabilities.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Many of these systems are inherently dual-use: the same tools that can safely deorbit defunct satellites could also be repurposed to disable enemy spacecraft.<\/p>\n<p>Still, some experts see a sliver of hope that this incident could serve as a much-needed wake-up call to catalyse risk-reduction measures between <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/topics\/us-china-relations?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"noopener\">Beijing and Washington<\/a>, and become a turning point for cooperation between the world\u2019s two leading space powers.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">While China rushes to ready the next spacecraft, Shenzhou-22, to be launched next week as the station\u2019s new lifeboat, the country had already begun \u201cworking more seriously on space-debris issues\u201d before the episode, said Harvard astronomer and space historian Jonathan McDowell.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A tiny piece of debris triggered the most serious mishap at China\u2019s Tiangong space station since it became&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":397119,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[188312,9710,74,188309,69128,917,43059,57263,137301,149665,188310,916,57261,159,178821,783,29151,178830,67,132,68,44853,2058,188311],"class_list":{"0":"post-397118","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-alvin-drew","9":"tag-beijing","10":"tag-china","11":"tag-chinese-astronauts","12":"tag-cold-war","13":"tag-earth","14":"tag-georgia-tech","15":"tag-guowang","16":"tag-international-astronautical-congress","17":"tag-jonathan-mcdowell","18":"tag-kaiyun-1","19":"tag-nasa","20":"tag-qianfan","21":"tag-science","22":"tag-shenzhou-20","23":"tag-space","24":"tag-spacexs-starlink","25":"tag-tiangong","26":"tag-united-states","27":"tag-unitedstates","28":"tag-us","29":"tag-us-space-force","30":"tag-washington","31":"tag-west-ford"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115593900572588144","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=397118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397118\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/397119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=397118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=397118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=397118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}