According to China Central Television, astronauts Zhang Lu, Wu Fei, and Zhang Hongzhang of the Shenzhou 21 crew completed their first extravehicular activity on the 9th. With the support and cooperation of the space station's robotic arm and ground-based scientific personnel, they successfully completed missions such as inspecting and photographing the return module's window of the Shenzhou 20 spacecraft, installing the space debris protection device on the space station, and replacing the multilayer cover of the thermal control adapter.
According to the plan, during their time in orbit, the Shenzhou 21 crew will also carry out additional extravehicular activities involving personnel and application payloads, conduct scientific experiments and technical tests, and, depending on the situation, have the astronaut crew implement protective measures for the damaged window of the Shenzhou 20 spacecraft.
On November 5, officials announced that the Shenzhou 20 manned spacecraft was suspected to have been struck by a tiny piece of space debris, resulting in a crack and forcing the delay of its return to Earth. On November 14, Chen Dong, Chen Zhongrui, and Wang Jie instead returned to Earth safely aboard the Shenzhou 21 manned spacecraft.