Chinese astronaut breaks spacewalk record

According to the China Manned Space Administration (CMSA), astronauts Cai Xozhe and Song Lingdong of the Shenzhou-19 spacecraft completed a nine-hour extravehicular activity (EVA) at 9:57 p.m. on December 17 (Beijing time).

The nine-hour spacewalk also marked a new milestone in China's spacewalk history. The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) said the last spacewalk record was set on March 11, 2001, when US astronauts James Voss and Susan Helms spent 8 hours and 56 minutes outside the space shuttle Discovery on a mission to the International Space Station.

China completes record-breaking spacewalk.

Earlier this year, Shenzhou-18 astronauts Ye Guangfu and Li Guangsu also completed a similar mission and spent nearly 8 hours and 30 minutes outside the Tiangong space station.

The second-generation “Feitian” spacesuit worn by Ye Guangfu and Li Guangsu during their trip in May is designed to support eight hours of spacewalking, CCTV reported.

“ The astronauts have a lot of work to do this time, including taking photos of the equipment they are testing, and that is why their spacewalk took so long,” Zhang Wanxin from the China Astronaut Research and Training Center told CCTV .

China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation's chief space station system designer Li Xuedong said they needed to install a protective shield to prevent debris from impacting one of the three main modules of Tiangong.

China's first spacewalk took place in September 2008, when astronaut Zhai Zhigang spent nearly 20 minutes outside the Shenzhou-7 spacecraft in a first-generation Feitian spacesuit.

According to NASA, there have been 270 spacewalks at the International Space Station (ISS) since December 1998. The longest was by US astronauts James Voss and Susan Helms in 2001, lasting 8 hours and 56 minutes.

Kong Anh (Source: South China Morning Post)

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