Chinese astronauts smashed the United States record and made a new world record for the longest spacewalk.
According to CNN, the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) said that the crew members of the Shenzhou-19 spaceflight, Cai Xuzhe and Song Lingdong, completed over nine hours of spacewalk just before 10 p.m. Beijing time on Tuesday, December 17, 2024, breaking over 23 years of American record.
The CMSA declared extravehicular activity (EVA) a “full success.”
As per NASA, previously US astronauts James Voss and Susan Helms set the record of eight hours and 56 minutes of spacewalk on March 12, 2001.
The new milestone has significant importance for China because in recent years the country has been working hard to become a leader in space exploration.
Moreover, the first-ever spacewalk in China occurred in September 2008, when Zhai Zhigang spent less than 20 minutes outside the Shenzhou-7 spacecraft in the first-generation Feitian suit.
The China National Space Administration in the past few years carried out multiple robotic lunar missions, including the first-ever return of lunar samples from the far side of the moon earlier this year.
Furthermore, the Shenzhou-19 aircraft arrived at Tiangong in October 2024 and is scheduled to return to Earth in late April or early May 2025.
