Chinese astronauts Cai Xuzhe and Song Lingdong made space exploration history with the record-breaking spacewalk. During their nine hours and six minutes of work outside the Tiangong Space Station, they performed key tasks related to station security and maintenance. The spacewalk was fully completed on Tuesday, December 17, 2024. 

Historic achievement 

The record set by Cai and Song beat the previous record set by American astronauts James Voss and Susan Helms in 2001, who spent 8 hours and 56 minutes outside the space shuttle Discovery during a mission to the International Space Station (ISS). Song Lingdong, the youngest-ever Chinese astronaut to perform a spacewalk, was born after 1990. 

During the spacewalk, the taikonauts installed protective equipment to protect the Tiangong Station from space debris hazards and inspected the external infrastructure. Their work also included key maintenance tasks on the equipment that enables the station to function. The spacewalk was an integral part of the Shenzhou-19 mission, which began in late October 2024. 

Shenzhou-19 mission 

The Shenzhou-19 mission crew, which includes Cai Xuzhe, Song Lingdong and Wang Haoze, will spend about six months in orbit. Their tasks include performing scientific experiments, technical tests and conducting more spacewalks. The crew is scheduled to return to Earth in April/May 2025. 

Tiangong, or “Heavenly Palace,” is a symbol of China’s space ambitions. The station was completed in 2022 as a response to the growing dominance of other space powers such as the United States and Russia. China’s space program, which is being implemented with tremendous momentum, seeks, among other things, to establish a permanent research base on the Moon by 2035. 

Sources: spacenews.com, en.wikipedia.org, reuters.com
Cover photo: PAP/EPA/XINHUA NEWS AGENC/XINHUA/LI JIE