Shenzhou-23 astronauts complete extravehicular activities

The Shenzhou-23 crew aboard China’s orbiting space station completed their mission’s first series of extravehicular activities on Friday.

The astronauts worked for approximately 5.5 hours and completed their tasks at 13:59 Beijing time assisted by the space station’s robotic arm and ground support teams.  This is the second time Chinese astronauts have performed such in-orbit maintenance tasks.

The three astronauts were launched aboard the Shenzhou-23 spacecraft on May 24 for an extended in-orbit mission. Since arriving at the station, the crew has completed an in-orbit handover, deployed application payloads outside the station, and conducted rendezvous-and-docking drills, medical rescue exercises and full-system pressure emergency response drills.