HELSINKI — China’s Shenzhou-17 astronauts embarked on their first extravehicular activity Thursday to address minor damage to a Tiangong space station solar array.
Mission commander Tang Hongbo and Tang Shengjie began a roughly 7.5-hour extravehicular activity (EVA), or spacewalk, Thursday. The pair reentered Tiangong through the Wentian science module’s EVA hatch at 8:35 a.m. Eastern (1335 UTC) Dec. 21, according to the China Manned Space Engineering Office (CMSEO).
Shenzhou-17 spacewalk tasks included a repair test on one of the Tianhe core module’s solar arrays. The system was earlier found to have suffered minor damage through micrometeoroid hits.
The successful experimental repair work could be seen as a big step for China as it aims to keep its Tiangong space station operational and permanently occupied for at least a decade.
Crewmate Jiang Xinlin assisted operations from inside Tiangong through the use of the space station’s robotic arm. Tang Shengjie, 34, became China’s youngest astronaut to embark on an EVA so far.
Tang Hongbo completed his first spacewalk back in July 2021 during the Shenzhou-12 mission — the first to visit the Tianhe core module.
“This extravehicular activity is extraordinarily significant, and extremely challenging. It is an in-orbit maintenance in its true sense,” Tang Hongbo said after the spacewalk, according to CCTV.
“At that moment, being there, I deeply felt the vastness of the starry sky and the profound meaning of infinite space exploration,” Tang Hongbo said.
A highlight video released by CMSEO showed the astronauts conducting closeup examinations of the solar array, assisted by the station’s robotic arms.
The EVA posed new challenges for the astronauts, according to Dong Nengli, deputy chief designer of China’s human spaceflight program.
“For the previous extravehicular activities, the…
Read the full article here