HELSINKI — Two Chinese astronauts conducted an extravehicular activity outside the Tiangong space station Thursday, marking their second spacewalk in five weeks.
Astronaut Chen Zhongrui opened the Wentian module hatch at 3:04 a.m. Eastern (0704 UTC) June 26, beginning activities, ascending to the tip of Tiangong’s robotic arm. Mission commander Chen Dong, wearing a Feitian EVA suit with blue stripes, joined his colleague two hours later. Wang Jie, formerly an engineer with the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), assisted operations from within Tiangong.
During the EVA, Chen Dong and Chen Zhongrui, a former air force pilot on his first visit to orbit, installed debris protective shielding outside of Tiangong, while also inspecting and installing extravehicular equipment and interfaces out the space station. Newly installed automated foot restraint adapters and interface adapters on Tiangong’s robotic arm platform used for spacewalks mean that subsequent EVAs are expected to be shortened by approximately 40 minutes, according to CMSEO.
“In the previous spacewalks, astronauts had to install foot limiter and operation platform on the robotic arm’s end effector before and after exiting the module, and then rely on the arm to transport them to the work site,” Li Xuedong, lead designer of the space station system at the CASC, told CCTV.
The pair completed the almost 6.5-hour spacewalk at 9:29 a.m. Eastern (1329 UTC), the China Manned Space Engineering Office (CMSEO) announced in a statement. CMSEO had stated a day earlier that the extravehicular activity (EVA) would take place “in the near future.”
This was the crew’s second EVA, following a first spacewalk May 22. During that EVA, Chen Dong and Chen Zhongrui exited Tiangong through the Tianhe core module EVA hatch. The eight-hour spacewalk was completed at 4:49 a.m. (0849 UTC) and also involved the installation of debris protective shielding.
Shenzhou-20 space science
The six-month-long Shenzhou-20 mission began April 24, with launch on a hypergolic propellant Long March 2F rocket from Jiuquan spaceport in northwest China, seeing the spacecraft dock at Tiangong around 6.5 hours later.
CMSEO stated that the crew have made steady progress in conducting planned experiments in fields including space life sciences and human research, microgravity physics and new space technology.
Previous video reports on the mission from the agency note that the crew have utilized a Raman spectrometer to conduct experiments on microbiota and nutrition metabolism, including assessing metabolic components in urine samples for investigating the interactive regulation of bone metabolism and other studies.
As well as completing maintenance duties related to resistance exercise equipment, the station’s regenerative life support system and thermal control equipment, the trio have also been interacting with an “intelligent” spaceflight robot named “Xiao Hang” to explore efficient collaboration methods between humans and robots.
Other experiments include assessing the impacts of microgravity on microorganisms, using streptomyces bacteria hosted in the biotechnology experiment cabinet. Liquid culture samples were frozen and stored in preparation for further study back on Earth.
In early June, Chen, Chen and Wang also interacted with 300 Hungarian students, scientists, and government officials in Budapest, answering questions submitted in advance. The “Tiangong Classroom,” event was co-hosted by CMSEO, the Chinese Embassy in Hungary and the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. The international event suggests an expansion of soft power outreach and diplomacy efforts using China’s human spaceflight activities, whereas most Tiangong classrooms have engaged with Chinese students.
The Shenzhou-20 mission is Chen Dong’s third spaceflight and his second command, after leading the 2022 Shenzhou-14 mission which oversaw the arrival of Tiangong’s two experiment modules, Wentian and Mengtian.
Back on Earth, teams are preparing for the launch of the Tianzhou-9 cargo supply spacecraft to Tiangong. Launch via a Long March 7 rocket from the coastal Wenchang spaceport is expected no earlier than July 14. Tiangong released an object into orbit early April, cataloged with the international designator 2021-035E, that may have been a cubesat delivered by the Tianzhou-8 resupply spacecraft currently docked at the station.
On June 17, China conducted a pad abort test for its new-generation Mengzhou spacecraft. The low Earth orbit variant of Mengzhou will be able to carry 6-7 astronauts to Tiangong, launching on a new Long March 10A rocket currently in development. While the space station currently hosts crews of three for six-month-long rotations, China is planning to expand the three-module orbital outpost with further modules in the coming years.
