China Shenzhou-19 Astronauts Smash NASA Spacewalk World Record

On 17 December 2024, China Shenzhou-19 Astronauts Cai Xuzhe and Song Lingdong of the Tiangong space station took a long-held world record from NASA. After staying out of their space station for 9 hours and 6 minutes, these astronauts became the holders of the world’s longest single spacewalk.

A Nine-Hour-Long Spacewalk To Perform Maintenance Work On The China Space Station

In 2001, NASA became the holder of the world record for the longest single spacewalk, with astronauts James Voss and Susan Helms staying out of their spaceship for eight hours and 56 minutes. After almost 24 years of holding on to this world record, NASA is stepping back as China takes it on thanks to their recent spacewalk achievement.

This new achievement for China in space was made aboard the China space station, almost 280 miles above Earth’s surface. A few days ago, the team aboard this space station embarked on a mission to install protective devices and examine the spaceship’s external equipment.

In order to achieve this goal, China Shenzhou-19 Astronauts Cai Xuzhe and Song Lingdong stepped out of the space station and into space. To ensure the safety of these astronauts, the team aboard provided support by controlling a robotic arm and safety cables to prevent the astronauts from drifting away from the space station.

For extra protection, the astronauts wore Feitian extravehicular activity suits which provided secure and stable communication equipment, life support, and protection from the elements. Thanks to this suit and the work of the team on board, both Cai Xuzhe and Song Lingdong were able to spacewalk for nine hours and six minutes performing maintenance tasks.

China Plans For More Spacewalks In The Future

The spacewalk concluded on 17 December 2024 is not the first of its kind from China, nor is it the first this year. In May 2024 China set a personal spacewalk record of eight hours and 23 minutes which it beat just a few days ago.

In November 2022 the Shenzhou-14 crew embarked on a spacewalk similar to the two embarked on this year. However, this spacewalk only lasted for five hours 30 minutes and Cai Xuzhe (one of the astronauts to break the spacewalk world record a few days ago) was part of the crew.

On 27 September 2008, Zhai Zhigang imprinted his name on the books of history by being a part of China’s first-ever spacewalk. This spacewalk only lasted for 20 minutes but was the start of more achievements in space for China.

The Shenzhou-19 will run till May 2025 and will bring more spacewalks as expansion plans of the Tiangong station kick-off. Will any of the coming spacewalks by the China Space Station crew break their newly established record?