By Maham Javaid

Three Chinese astronauts were stuck aboard the Tiangong space station this month when their return craft sustained damage. They eventually made it home on the vehicle that brought up their replacements — leaving the next trio of astronauts in the same predicament. They are far from alone: Russian and U.S. spacefarers have also been delayed in space in recent years, for months at a time.

Micrometeoroid strikes, technical malfunctions and poor weather have imperiled space travel from the start. But as space logistics become more complex, human-made space debris proliferates and weather becomes less predictable, such incidents are likely to increase, experts said.

Another reason an astronaut has been stuck in space: their country dissolved while they were in orbit.

Whether it is a state- or commercially operated mission, all visits to space have to be authorized by a government, said Danielle Wood, director of the Space Enabled Research Group at the MIT Media Lab. The Soviet Union was dissolved while Russian cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev was on board the Mir space station in 1991. Krikalev had launched from the Soviet Socialist Republic of Kazakhstan and was meant to be in space for 150 days, but had to stay in orbit for more than twice that because there were questions about who would finance his return to Earth and be responsible for his space activity.