Chinese astronauts living aboard the Tiangong Space Station created a world record on December 17. Two of the Shezhou 19 crew members conducted a marathon nine-hour Extravehicular Activity (EVA) or spacewalk, highest ever in spaceflight history while working outside the station. The EVA was precisely clocked in at nine hours and 6 minutes.
According to China’s Manned Space Engineering Office (CMSEO), Cai Xuzhe and Song Lingdong stepped out of the habitat late Monday night and worked through Tuesday morning.
The duo is part of the Shezhou 19 mission commanded by Xuzhe and they broke the record set by NASA astronauts James Voss and Susan Helms of eight hours and 56 minutes. The shortest spacewalk, just 19 minutes, also belongs to Voss who did it with Yury Usachev in June 2001.
The CMSEO officials said that Xuzhe and Lingdong “worked closely together, and with the support of the space station’s robotic arm and ground scientific researchers, completed the installation of the space station’s space debris protection device, the inspection and disposal of extravehicular equipment and facilities, and other tasks,” Space.com reported.
They also announced that Lingdong became the first Chinese astronaut born in the 90s to conduct the spacewalk.
According to Space News, the latest spacewalk marked the 17th EVA conducted outside the Tiangong station which was completely assembled in November 2022.
Source: https://www.space.com/space-exploration/human-spaceflight/chinese-astronauts-conduct-record-breaking-9-hour-spacewalk-outside-tiangong-space-station-photos
