Chinese astronaut sets a spacewalk record

Cai Xuzhe and Song Lingdong, two members of China’s Shenzhou 19 crew, spent more than nine hours spacewalking outside the Tiangong space station, from the late evening of December 16 to the morning of December 17 , according to authorities from the China Manned Space Engineering Office (CMSEO). The duo broke the previous extravehicular activity (EVA) time record of 8 hours and 56 minutes set by NASA astronauts James Voss and Susan Helms outside the International Space Station (ISS) in March. /2001, according to Space.

During the walk, Cai and Song along with colleague Wang Haoze, who remained inside Tiangong station, worked closely with the support of the station’s robotic arm and scientific researchers on the ground to Complete installation of anti-space debris equipment, inspection and disposal of equipment outside the station, and many other tasks. According to Song, the spacewalk was a complete success. Song (34 years old) also became the first Chinese astronaut born in the 1990s to perform an EVA.

The walk began when Cai commanded the Shenzhou 19 mission, leaving the Wentian module of Thien Cung station. More than 90 minutes later, Song also went out of the station. The two astronauts returned to the Wentian module the next day. In total, the spacewalk lasted 9 hours and 6 minutes.

This is the 17th EVA outside Thien Cung station. The station’s core module, Thien Hoa, will reach orbit in April 2021. The next two modules are Van Thien and Mong Thien, arriving in July and November 2022 respectively, arriving in July and November 2022 respectively, completing the T-shaped configuration.