China’s Shenzhou 14 astronauts simply performed a spacewalk to hold out work on a newly arrived space station module.
Astronauts Chen Dong and Cai Xuzhe opened the hatch of the Wentian experiment module at 10:16 p.m. EDT on Wednesday (Nov. 16; 0316 GMT on Thursday, Nov. 17) and launched into a 5.5-hour extravehicular exercise, or spacewalk, exterior the Tiangong space station.
The pair put in a tool to attach Tiangong’s Tianhe core module with the brand new Mengtian module, which launched to the station on Oct. 31. This may permit astronauts to maneuver extra simply and freely between modules when exterior the station, with out the necessity for robotic arms to maneuver them round.
Associated: The latest news about China’s space program
Chen and Cai additionally raised a panoramic digital camera exterior the Wentian module and put in a deal with on its small mechanical arm. This allowed Tiangong’s two robotic arms — which measure 33.5 toes (10.2 meters) and 19.6 toes (6 m) in size, respectively — to attach, forming one longer arm for the primary time.
Liu Yang, who turned China’s first lady in space in 2012, stayed inside Tiangong to help her crewmates through the spacewalk. Actions had been accomplished at 3:50 a.m. EDT (0850 GMT) on Thursday.
Groups on the bottom had been very glad with the operation, in accordance with CCTV+ (opens in new tab). “Efficiency of the crew as a complete was good, and the coordination between the space and the bottom was additionally very coordinated, and your complete mission was efficiently accomplished,” stated Chen Shanguang, deputy chief designer of the China human spaceflight program.
The three Shenzhou 14 astronauts arrived at Tiangong in early June. They carried out two earlier spacewalks in September and can quickly be making ready to return dwelling.
The following crewed mission, Shenzhou 15, will blast off atop a Lengthy March 2F rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite tv for pc Launch Heart within the Gobi Desert earlier than the tip of the 12 months. China launched the Tianzhou 5 cargo spacecraft to Tiangong on Nov. 12 to ship provides upfront of the brand new crewed mission.
The Shenzhou 14 crew will greet the Shenzhou 15 staff onboard Tiangong to impact China’s first orbital crew handover.
Observe us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) and on Facebook (opens in new tab).
