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 November after a handover with the Shenzhou-21 crew. That return has been postponed while engineers assess potential damage from what reports describe as "a tiny piece of space debris."

SpaceX fans quickly began calling for a rescue mission. Earlier this year, US President Donald Trump instructed Musk to "go get" the crew of Boeing's Starliner spacecraft, whom Trump claimed were "virtually abandoned" by the Biden administration. Rather than correct the misunderstanding, Mu

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