Overview
- Chinese authorities postponed the Shenzhou-20 crew’s planned November 5 landing after a presumed hit by small space debris, with a safety analysis now underway as Shenzhou-21 conducts the crew rotation at Tiangong.
- Astronomers characterize 3I/ATLAS as an interstellar comet showing a tail and gas–dust envelope, with Hubble data suggesting a nucleus about 20 km wide and studies indicating a carbonized surface layer.
- Scientists say the object poses no threat to Earth, projecting a closest approach near 268 million km, and attribute observed non‑gravitational effects to solar heating and plasma interactions.
- Speculative commentary has included talk of potential artificial propulsion in a Newsmax interview with Michio Kaku and earlier claims by Avi Loeb, which other researchers counter with standard orbital mechanics.
- Roscosmos targets a November 27 launch of Soyuz MS‑28 carrying Sergei Kud’-Sverchkov, Sergei Mikaev and NASA’s Christopher Williams, with two spacewalks planned for spring and a trial of GigaChat to generate onboard reports from crew notes.