China’s astronauts complete first series of extravehicular activities

China’s Shenzhou-21 crew onboard the country’s orbiting space station completed their mission’s first series of extravehicular activities (EVAs) on Tuesday.

The trio crew, consisting of mission commander Zhang Lu and astronauts Wu Fei and Zhang Hongzhang, completed all assigned tasks by 18:42 (Beijing Time) after more than eight hours, with assistance from the space station’s robotic arm and ground-based research fellows. Overall, the Shenzhou-21 crew’s first series of EVAs included inspecting and imaging the Shenzhou-20 return capsule’s viewport window, installing debris-shielding components on the space station, and replacing multilayer covers on a thermal control adapter.