It’s a scene from many space movies: an actor looks through a window into the vacuum of space, watching a crack slowly form and stretch across the screen. This week, Space.com released some excerpts from interviews with Chinese astronauts who experienced similarly dramatic events (see below).
The incident occurred in November, when an anomaly occurred during the Shenzhou 20 mission, causing three of them to be temporarily stranded in space.
“I was the one who went to check,” said mission commander Chen Dong (I apologize for the poor translation, which a Canadian like me certainly couldn’t improve upon). “When I walked through the capsule with my naked eye, I spotted something like a triangle on the viewport.”
For a moment, his brain recognized it as a leaf on the windshield, but then he realized that, in fact, it was something much more dangerous. It was a crack, caused by the impact of a small piece of space debris. They may never know exactly what the debris was, but it is believed to be less than a millimeter in diameter.
“Actually, I’m not nervous,” said astronaut Wang Jie. “The outermost layer of the window is a protective layer, and there are two pressure-bearing layers inside. As long as the pressure in the cabin does not change, we will be safe.” He also had full confidence in the ability of the ground crew to ensure their safety.
Inspection actually requires the use of a pen microscope to reveal the cracks. “We can see the small cracks very clearly [with the microscope]. Some are longer and one is shorter. We can also see that some cracks have penetrated. “
This all happened in days, not seconds, but it’s still scary to think about.
space debris impact
These photos of tiny but severe impacts show how damaging even a small impact can be. Image source: NASA
As a result of the impact, the crew had to leave the Shenzhou 20 spacecraft and return to Earth aboard the Shenzhou 21 space capsule, which was originally used to carry rescue workers home. That got them home, but Shenzhou 20 remained stuck at the docking station, leaving rescuers stranded with no available vehicles.
Eventually, the empty Shenzhou 20 space capsule was brought back to Earth, and the crew of Shenzhou 21 returned to Earth in another space capsule.
All in all, it was at least an impressive demonstration of China’s space program capabilities. NASA has sometimes struggled to respond to problems in space due to a lack of spacecraft, although this has become less of an issue in recent years; China seems to have no hesitation in pouring money into its space program.
Unsurprisingly, the incident has reignited fears of disaster in space, and for good reason. We may not know exactly what hit the space station, but we do know that in the current crowded sky, disaster could be as close as a major collision or debris ejection.
Thankfully, this time the impact was small enough to serve as a warning.
