After three months, the crew of China's Shenzhou 21 mission has completed their second spacewalk.
According to the China Manned Space Engineering Office, at 7:35 PM on the 16th, after seven hours of extravehicular activity, astronauts Zhang Lu, Wu Fei, and Zhang Hongzhang of the Shenzhou 21 crew worked in close coordination. With the support of the space station's robotic arm and ground-based scientific researchers, they completed tasks including the installation of space debris protection devices.
Spacewalk astronauts Zhang Lu and Wu Fei have safely returned to the Wentian lab module. Zhang Lu has now completed six spacewalks, making him one of the Chinese astronauts with the most extravehicular activities.
Since completing their first spacewalk on December 9th last year, the Shenzhou 21 crew has carried out equipment inspections and maintenance inside the space station, environmental monitoring, health management, in-orbit training such as rendezvous and docking, medical rescue, and emergency escape. They have steadily advanced experimental projects in space life sciences and human research, microgravity physics, and new space technologies, and spent the Lunar New Year of the Year of the Horse in orbit.
Currently, the three astronauts have been working in orbit for more than four months. As planned, additional spacewalks by the crew will be carried out during the mission, along with ongoing scientific experiments and technical tests.