The Shenzhou XVII crew conducted their second spacewalk outside the Tiangong space station on Saturday, (complete) the first repair operation by Chinese astronauts, according to the China Manned Space Agency.
The agency said that mission commander Tang Hongbo and crew member Jiang Xinlin (return) to the Wentian science module (舱) at 1:32 pm after floating for nearly eight hours outside the huge orbital station. The (three) crew member Tang Shengjie, stayed inside Tiangong to provide support.
"With the (cooperate) and assistance from ground controllers and the space station's robotic arm the team completed all their assigned tasks (successful)," the agency said. It was the 15th spacewalk (carry) out by Chinese astronauts. During the spacewalk, Tang Hongbo and Jiang Xinlin repaired damage to parts on the Tianhe core module's solar wings that was caused by tiny space debris (碎片).
The Shenzhou XVII astronauts, are the sixth crew to inhabit the Tiangong space station, arrived at the enormous flying outpost on Oct. 26, 2023 to take over from their peers (同行) in the Shenzhou XVI mission.
On Dec. 21, the crew performed their first spacewalk finished a host of tasks including carrying out test repairs, too. They are scheduled (wrap) up their spaceflight at the end of April and will hand over the Tiangong space station the Shenzhou XVIII crew before returning to Earth.
