Space debris: will it take a catastrophe for nations to take the issue seriously?

By Ian Whittaker, Senior Lecturer in Physics, Nottingham Trent University
Lesley Masters, Senior Lecturer in International Relations, Nottingham Trent University

China routinely sends astronauts to and from its space station Tiangong. A crew capsule is about to undock from the station and return to Earth, but there’s nothing routine about its journey home.

The Shenzhou-20 capsule will carry no crew, because one of its windows has been struck by space debris. Astronauts noticed an apparent crack on November 5, during pre-return checks.

Space journalist Andrew Jones explained…

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