By EFE
May 29, 2024, 00:13 AM EDT
Two members of the Chinese Space Station crew carried out an extravehicular mission that became the longest journey in the history of the Asian country’s space program, reported the China Manned Mission Space Agency.
Astronauts Ye Guangfu and Li Guangsu worked this Tuesday, local Chinese time, outside the space station under the supervision of their partner, Li Cong, who remained inside the ship.
Ye and Li Guangsu were away from the facilities for approximately eight and a half hours, during which they installed protection devices against space debris, tasks in which they received assistance from the station’s robotic arm and a control team on Earth.
It was the first extravehicular mission carried out by the current crew of the Chinese Tiangong Space Station, whose name means Heavenly Palace in Mandarin.
However, it was the second spacewalk for Ye, who had already stayed on the space station between October 2021 and April 2022.
The three astronauts, who arrived at the space station in April aboard the Shenzhou-18 spacecraft, will carry out a series of scientific experiments and technical tests in space during the six months of their mission.
It is also planned that the crew will complete a total of “two or three” spacewalks during their stay on Tiangong.
The Shenzhou-18 is the ninth spacecraft to visit the space station, which will operate for about 10 years and will become the only space station in the world in 2024 without the International Space Station, an initiative led by the United States and to which China is banned from access due to military ties to its space program and is withdrawing this year as planned.
China has invested heavily in its space program and has achieved successes such as landing the Chang’e 4 probe on the far side of the Moon – the first time this has been achieved – and reaching Mars for the first time, becoming the third country – after the United States United States and the extinct Soviet Union – in “amartizar”.
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