Two Chinese astronauts aboard the Tiangong space station have broken the world record for the longest single spacewalk, set more than two decades ago by the US space programme.
At 9.57pm Beijing time on Tuesday, Shenzhou-19 crew members Cai Xuzhe and Song Lingdong completed a nine-hour extravehicular activity (EVA), according to the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA).
The previous record was set on March 11, 2001, when American astronauts James Voss and Susan Helms spent eight hours and 56 minutes outside the space shuttle Discovery during a mission to the International Space Station, according to Nasa.
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The nine-hour EVA also marks a milestone in China’s spacewalk history. Earlier this year, Shenzhou-18 astronauts Ye Guangfu and Li Guangsu completed a similar mission, spending eight hours and 23 minutes outside Tiangong.
State broadcaster CCTV reported at the time that the second-generation “Feitian” spacesuits worn by the astronauts during the EVA in May were capable of supporting up to eight hours of external work – double the duration of the first-generation suits.
China’s first-ever spacewalk occurred in September 2008, when Zhai Zhigang spent just under 20 minutes outside the Shenzhou-7 spacecraft in the first-generation Feitian suit.
Footage from the Tiangong screened at the Beijing Aerospace Control Centre on Tuesday showed Cai and Song leaving the Wentian lab module, tethered to the station with two metre-long safety cables.
Their work was supported by crewmate Wang Haozhe, who remained inside the station, as well as the Tiangong’s robotic arms and ground control teams. The CMSA declared the EVA was a “full success.”
The mission was especially significant for Song – a former fighter pilot with the PLA Air Force, who became the first Chinese astronaut born in the 1990s to conduct a spacewalk.
For Cai, the mission commander, the record-breaking spacewalk marked his second EVA at the Tiangong.
In November 2022, as part of the Shenzhou-14 crew, Cai completed a 5.5-hour spacewalk, the first of its kind following the completion of Tiangong’s T-shaped configuration in low Earth orbit, about 380km (236 miles) above Earth.
The Shenzhou-19 mission will include further EVAs, along with a large number of scientific experiments and technical tests, according to the CMSA.
The crew of Shenzhou-19 arrived at Tiangong in late October. They are scheduled to return to Earth in late April or early May 2025, landing at the Dongfeng site in Inner Mongolia.
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