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 …

[bombastic bob]

A bit opposite from "The Martian"

As I recall in "The Martian" the U.S. kept messing up on the supply rocket (etc.) and China (in the story line) bailed us out. [that part seemed 'forced to fit' In My Bombastic Opinion]

This time around being a bit more realistic - I say "glad to help!" "Falcons are GO!" This would be even more interesting in "Supermarionation" [I loved that show when I was a kid, watched them all when they were new. Thunderbird 3 hardly ever got to fly on a mission, though.]

I'm curious what the turnaround on a man-rated Dragon + Falcon would be from "now" to launch... guess we'll see!

[Like a badger]

Re: A bit opposite from "The Martian"

Certainly does seem that Musk, all the techbro, and the US political leadership are all living in Supermarionation*, and somebody's definitely pulling Trump's strings.

* For the kiddies, this has nothing to do with Super Mario

[MyffyW]

Re: A bit opposite from "The Martian"

I must have seen the opposite episodes, Bob, because it seemed to me we saw lots of Thunderbirds 1 - 3 and very little of Thunderbirds 4 and 5.

Always felt sorry for the chap stuck up on his own on Thunderbird 5. Although I suppose he did have his strings for company.

[Like a badger]

Re: A bit opposite from "The Martian"

Although I suppose he did have his strings for company

With all that leisure time on his tod, the strings would have got all tangled up when....erm, maybe no I won't finish that sentence, this being a polite, family forum.

[MyffyW]

Re: A bit opposite from "The Martian"

I'm not judging, just glad it was you who went there

[John Brown (no body)]

Re: A bit opposite from "The Martian"

"this being a polite, family forum."

Are you new here? Where did you steal the badge from? :-)

[Caver_Dave]

Re: A bit opposite from "The Martian"

"strings for company" I read that as "strings for support"

[Peter Gathercole]

Re: A bit opposite from "The Martian"

John rotated through Thunderbird 5 with Scott and Alan taking shifts. I'd have to go back to the episode lists, but I'm sure there is one where he participates on a rescue on Earth, and also one (possibly the same one) where TB3 is on a resupply mission.

If you include the extended universe that included the comics and annuals, it was stated that John was an astrophysicist, who used his spare time to study the stars using telescopes on TB5 from above the Earth's atmosphere, something shown in Thunderbirds that precede what we now do through space telescopes like Hubble and James Webb. He also liked his own company.

The concept of TB5 was an interesting story line, but like SID in UFO, was flawed in that half of the Earth (or a segment of the sky in SID's case) would be obscured because of the effective RF shadow (no pun intended) caused by the Earth.

[david1024]

Options

Space is hard. NASA says so, it is continuously re-proved, and humans remain fragile.

While China has a good backup/contingency plan in place and seems to be using it effectively--it is always a good thought exercise to explore what would it take to rescue with non-Chinese (US/commercial in this case) assets.

[Anonymous Coward]

Wake me up when China calls in need of assistance

I don't expect that'll be anytime soon.

[MyffyW]

Re: Wake me up when China calls in need of assistance

SpaceX is allied with Eastasia.

SpaceX has always been allied with Eastasia.

War is Peace etc. etc.

[HereIAmJH]

Re: Wake me up when China calls in need of assistance

Kind of my thought when I read the article. Despite the headline, China hasn't asked and is unlikely to because they don't need help. And SpaceX probably couldn't provide assistance anyway because they don't have the correct hardware. They can't do a previously scheduled 'rescue' mission and they don't have spare Dragons. Let's just hope there's no repeat of the Pedo Guy incident.

[John Brown (no body)]

Re: Wake me up when China calls in need of assistance

I'm sure Musk could knock out a quick prototype submarine to "rescue" them with ;-)

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Wake me up when China calls in need of assistance

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXFhL1xF_G8

[tony72]

SpaceX and Musk called on to rescue China's Shenzhou-20 crew

Called on - by some rando on X, who almost certainly wasn't being serious - a low bar indeed to justify a headline on El Reg. I suppose it's an excuse to discuss the feasibility of such an endeavour, regardless the obvious 0% chance of it happening.

[cipnt]

These narratives that Musk is a genius, an inventor, or in this case a saviour, are pushed by his guerrilla PR team and crypto bros.

I see no evidence of that; just an arrogant, entitled, rich prick.

[Anonymous Coward]

I have been in meetings with Musk.

He demands something.

His engineers discuss it between themselves with lots of head shaking.

Whilst they are still talking, a manager (often several layers up), says yes and Musk smiles and leaves the meeting.

Cue the rest of the meeting discussing what can actually be achieved to get close to what was demanded, and agreed to by the Toad.

Toad gets more shares, engineers get more sleepless nights!

[herman]

There is no problem that cannot be solved with another layer of management.

[Anonymous Coward]

... a low bar indeed to justify a headline on El Reg.

Indeed.

Very low.

.

[MachDiamond]

"Called on - by some rando on X, who almost certainly wasn't being serious"

And a rando that didn't know that China has the ability to conduct their own rescue if needed with their own assets and don't need SpaceX at all. Not that SpaceX could do anything if called on, anyway. They don't have the hardware in stock and would have to get around to building something custom with a Chinese mating docking adapter.

[FIA]

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.

Why is it 'copying' if they implement published international standards?

Isn't it just the sensible thing to do?

[Jason Bloomberg]

Indeed. Accusations of "copying" seems to merely be anti-China propaganda - Damned if they do, damned if they don't

The actual issue, if a rescue were needed, appears to be in which standard, or version of standard, each has adopted.

[Chris Gray 1]

Try it on earth.

Surely it wouldn't be hard for the Chinese to ship one of their docking adaptors (without space station attached!) over to SpaceX, so that SpaceX could hack up a variant of what they use that will properly mate with the Chinese one?

[John Sager]

Re: Try it on earth.

You can't do that in a month, which is the more or less necessary timeframe.

Also, even if the Chinese manufactured to a published spec that SpaceX used, they have never jointly tested, which is a necessary first step for manned spaceflight.

[Doctor Syntax]

Re: Try it on earth.

ISTR there were a few things hastily put together to get Apollo 13 back which had not been previously tested.

[Excused Boots]

Re: Try it on earth.

"ISTR there were a few things hastily put together to get Apollo 13 back which had not been previously tested.”

Yes, but be fair, there really wasn’t much option for ‘previous testing’ in that situation.

In this case the astronauts (‘taikonauts?’) aren’t in any immediate danger, yes there are now six of them in a station, really geared to support three for any lengthy period of time, it’s not ideal but not critical.

It all depends on the level of damage that has occurred to ’20’, presumably if, and it’s a big if, the Chinese authorities were to decide that the would rather not risk ’20’ to return, they could, and its a big ‘could’ start preparing an unmanned Shenzhou craft to launch and dock. I don’t know but could ’20’ be undocked and remotely commanded to re-enter without a crew, to free up a docking port?

In extremis, could they send three of the people back in the Shenzhou-21 craft to relieve the pressure on the environmental systems, which does leave three people stuck with a possibly dodgy return vehicle, depending on how quickly they could get a replacement up there.

[John Robson]

Re: Try it on earth.

"they have never jointly tested, which is a necessary first step for manned spaceflight."

For planned manned spaceflight.

For an emergency, then "do what you can" becomes the appropriate level of testing to demand.

Of course this isn't yet an emergency, albeit it's now only one step away from one, and not exactly a happy place to be for those currently in orbit with fewer than the appropriate number of seats to get back.

[herman]

Re: Try it on earth.

Hmm, well, I’m sure China has several spare Taikonauts.

[herman]

Re: Try it on earth.

And just as shirley SpaceX cannot take three EV suits with…

[Gary Stewart]

"the crew of Boeing's Starliner spacecraft, whom Trump claimed were "virtually abandoned" by the Biden administration. Rather than correct the misunderstanding, "

My aren't we being differential. BBC got you boys thinking twice?

[Jan 0]

Arse elbow?

BBC knows its Calculus from it's Submissiveness.

[Gary Stewart]

Gee that's the same excuse used time and time again here in the US. Really weird how all that opposed the blackmail in court won!

[Gary Stewart]

Bake that you tastards

To the 20 down votes, it wasn't a misstatement it was a blatant lie. As you well know it was Boeing who put that piece of crap capsule in space and was trying desperately to save face by not having it's prime competitor pull it's ass out of the fire, NASA who didn't want any more that the current 17 dead astronauts (21 if you count training deaths), and SpaceX who had to figure out how to schedule a rescue with an already fully full schedule that made the decision not "the Biden administration". You would think that after all the times the Trump regime used that lie to cover it's own ass that it could not have to been "mistaken" as a misunderstanding.

[John Robson]

Re: Bake that you tastards

Ah - you meant deferential.

That makes much more sense... I completely failed to parse the typo.

[DoctorNine]

Obviously...

Well, Musk has all those rockets sitting around. Why not make a little extra pocket money by doing an Uber here and there? Could be SpaceX's new division. "Gone to the corner space station and found yourself in a bit of the old tipsy turmoil? Just call us and avoid problems getting home."

[tip pc]

Re: Obviously...

UberX?

[John Brown (no body)]

Re: Obviously...

Uber Alles

FTFY

[-Ethan-]

True that it's unlikely for political and probably other technical reasons but:

Paragraph 6: "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.".

SpaceX has five operational Crew Dragon capsules (206, 207, 210, 212, and 213).

206 is out since it's in space right now, scheduled to return in April 2026, and SpaceX has never turned around a capsule in 2 months before.

For the others, last missions were completed April 2025 (207), August 2025 (210), March 2025 (211), and July 2025 (212). In April 2026, the time since last landing for these would be 12 months, 8 months, 13 months, and 9 months, respectively.

206 has previously had turn around times of 5 months and 6 months. 207 has turned around in 4 months and 8 months. 210 has turned around in 5 months twice. 212 has turned around in 7 months, 8 months, and 7 months. (There are other, longer gaps between missions for these capsules but the relevant question here is how fast has SpaceX been able to do it when mission demand required it, so I've spared the comment reader the exhaustive list.)

Given these times since last landing for the four capsules currently on the ground and these demonstrated past turn around times, I don't see a capsule availability obstacle to launching a rescue mission between now and April 2026 and keeping the April and June 2026 missions on schedule.

Could the author elaborate on how it was determined that either the April or June 2026 missions would have to be rescheduled to free up a capsule for a hypothetical rescue mission?

[A Non e-mouse]

IF China asks for help to rescue its astronauts, then help should be provided in whatever way possible, regardless of differences in political ideology. Providing help when asked is a good thing.

Unfortunately, the current inhabitant of the White House has shown repeatedly he doesn't know or care about the value of another human life.

[John Sager]

I can't imagine Trump saying FU if the Chinese asked. It would be huge publicity for the US if they managed it, many dB better than SpaceX pulling Boeing or of the ordure.

[TVU]

If help was needed and requested then I suspect that SpaceX would try to do their best to mount a rescue mission to save the Chinese astronauts.

[SundogUK]

"Unfortunately, the current inhabitant of the White House has shown repeatedly he doesn't know or care about the value of another human life."

Please provide examples.

[Anonymous Coward]

Gaza & Ukraine

[herman]

The problem is that Reps care more about the lives of honest and innocent people, while Lib-Dems care more about criminal people.

[John Brown (no body)]

I nominate the above for the 2025 Annual Brain-dead Comment of the Year Award.

[Anonymous Coward]

Had russia refused to share thier space technology with us woud we even have made an appearence on iss until space x could lfinaly lift ius off ?

[Anonymous John]

"SpaceX fans quickly began calling for a rescue mission. "

SpaceX fans? Who don't understand that the proposal is ridiculous. Musk fans, very likely.

[awomanmanhasaname]

Send Starliner instead

[stiine]

You're evil.

[Joe Gurman]

Debris?

Tiangong spends its time between 340 and 450 km. The 2007 Chinese ASAT test target was orbiting at ~ 865 km at the time. Ant debris that made it down the 400 - 500 km difference in heights had a significant radially downward component to its velocity, and would long ago have deorbited.

[Bill Gray]

Re: Debris?

Errmm... well, no.

Space-Track is currently listing 1869 tracked fragments from that test. (That's what's left; many others have re-entered over the intervening 18 years.) They are at a variety of altitudes. Some got their perigees lowered enough to re-enter early on. Others have taken a while and are still in the process of "spiraling in" (not really a spiral, but close enough). There are plenty of objects at any given altitude to make it plausible (though unlikely) that the impact was the result of debris from that test.

While possible, it's "unlikely" because sadly, there's so much junk up there now that the 1869 tracked fragments, plus the doubtless many thousand too-small-to-track ones, don't raise the odds that much. But I wish China had picked a lower target. The comparable US test can be objected to for other reasons. But because it was done on an object already within the upper atmosphere, almost all of the bits and pieces decayed quickly. Two lasted longer, with the last one re-entering 20 months after the test.

[Fruit and Nutcase]

Distress and Rescue in Space

Getting the governments of the countries with viable space launch vehicles to agree on something equivalent to the international conventions that regulate the coordination and implementation of maritime rescue would be like herding cats. The politics would get in the way of progress

International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea - SOLAS, 1974

International Convention on Maritime Search and Rescue - SAR, 1979

United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea - UNCLOS, 1982

[Fruit and Nutcase]

Space Cowboy?

SpaceX - based in Texas - does that make Musk a Space Cowboy

[markr555]

Re: Space Cowboy?

More of a Spaced-Out cowboy.

[Anonymous Coward]

Gentlemen's agreement

I believe even the Soviet Union and the United States had a gentleman's agreement on aiding each other's astronauts in the case of an emergency. Their docking ports were compatible as demonstrated on Apollo-Soyuz. And it paved the way for the international docking adapter.

As a token of good will and depolarization both China and the U.S. would do well negotiating a similar agreement.

[David Hicklin]

Re: Gentlemen's agreement

> docking ports were compatible as demonstrated on Apollo-Soyuz

My understanding is that the Apollo had an adaptor module done in a similar way to the Lunar Module

[Pulte]

Proper planning

What if this was the plan along (the incident) play the role of a wounded animal seeking help to gain access to a very advance propulsion system through proper planning... Especially if they're using a similar or same rocket system to rescue those astronauts.

[Oneman2Many]

China has already said they have a spare capsule and rocket on stand by if needed. Much like NASA did with various return to operations missions with the shuttle. Pretty cool photos but completely useless, there was no way to actually perform a 'rescue' even if you managed to spare shuttle there in time.

As for the lack of compatible docking port. In theory they could exit through airlock in suits and then we've seen that Dragon can be depressurised and re-pressurised in space assuming they had the appropriate configuration.

And don't even get me started on the incompatible space suit issue, lol

[Oneman2Many]

https://www.geo.tv/latest/632202-chinas-shenzhou-22-on-standby-for-rescue-after-debris-delays-astronauts-return

[Dwarf]

I assume that if they help get some of the Chinese crew home, then that would be a Chinese take away ?

[Grant_P]

Asstronauts to the rescue

Why don't you yanks just go and hire Bruce Willis and his rag tag team of "the wrong stuff" and have them mount a rescue ;)

If the Chinese needed help, they'd definitely call on the Russians first!

[Eel]

Re: Asstronauts to the rescue

Musk is far more a valued frirnd of china thsn anybody in russia!!! Hes the only foreign compay in china to be permitted to function withoutt domestic partnership! When US tinkered atound with forcing tick tok sale, china quierly disclosed thier intent to have musk represent thier interests!! China saw the value of the most prpgressive mind in plsnet history and fiercly courrted his companionship which they turnned into the only modern day car industry, in less time than we spent courting ford and gm to turn ours! Im confident that if drmoxrats can chase hom out that china would open up the war chest to lure him in!!! As would most devrloped cultures!!

[Oneman2Many]

China has confirmed they won't use Shenzhou-20 and instead use Shenzhou-21 which was used for the new crew rotation. I assume they will launch Shenzhou-22 without crew for the crew that just arrived. If may mean they don't have a lifeboat until 22 gets there. Basically the same situation as MS-22 where MS-23 was launched without crew.

[earplugs]

Crew already landed

In the time it takes for ElReg to fake a headline, China alreadfy launched a backup space capsuleand rescued the crew