Summary:
- Chinese astronauts Cai Xuzhe and Song Lingdong broke a 23-year-old spacewalk record by completing a 9-hour EVA outside Tiangong space station on December 17, 2024.
- The mission surpassed NASA’s previous record of 8 hours 56 minutes set in 2001, utilizing advanced “Feitian” spacesuits that doubled work capacity.
- Song Lingdong made history as the first Chinese astronaut born in the 1990s to conduct a spacewalk, while commander Cai Xuzhe completed his second EVA.
- The Shenzhou-19 crew will continue their mission until April/May 2025, conducting more spacewalks and experiments at Tiangong station, 380km above Earth.
Chinese astronauts aboard the Tiangong space station have shattered a 23-year-old record for the longest single spacewalk, marking a significant milestone in space exploration history.
Cai Xuzhe and Song Lingdong, members of the Shenzhou-19 crew, completed a nine-hour extravehicular activity (EVA) on Tuesday, December 17, 2024, at 9:57 PM Beijing time. The spacewalk surpassed the previous record of eight hours and 56 minutes, set by NASA astronauts James Voss and Susan Helms in March 2001 during a mission to the International Space Station.
The historic EVA was conducted from the Wentian lab module, where the astronauts were secured by two-meter-long safety cables. Their colleague Wang Haozhe provided support from inside the station, while the operation was further assisted by Tiangong’s robotic arms and ground control teams.
The China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) declared the mission a “full success.” The astronauts wore second-generation “Feitian” spacesuits, capable of supporting up to eight hours of external work – double the capacity of their predecessors.
For Song Lingdong, a former fighter pilot with the PLA Air Force, the mission carried additional significance as he became the first Chinese astronaut born in the 1990s to perform a spacewalk. Mission commander Cai Xuzhe, who previously conducted a 5.5-hour EVA during the Shenzhou-14 mission in November 2022, achieved his second successful spacewalk.
The Shenzhou-19 crew, which arrived at Tiangong in late October 2024, will continue their mission with additional EVAs, scientific experiments, and technical tests. They are scheduled to return to Earth in late April or early May 2025, landing at the Dongfeng site in Inner Mongolia.
This achievement represents remarkable progress from China’s first spacewalk in September 2008, when astronaut Zhai Zhigang spent less than 20 minutes outside the Shenzhou-7 spacecraft. The Tiangong space station, positioned approximately 380 kilometers above Earth in low Earth orbit, continues to serve as China’s primary platform for space research and exploration.
