BEIJING: China’s Shenzhou-14 astronauts, or taikonauts, completed their third round of extravehicular activities (EVAs) and set up a vestibule between cabins on Thursday, according to the China Manned Space Agency.
It was the first round of EVAs for the crew after the assembly of the station’s basic T-shape configuration. Taikonauts Chen Dong and Cai Xuzhe exited the cabin, and Liu Yang stayed inside the cabin for support. The EVAs lasted around 5.5 hours. During the EVAs, the two taikonauts outside the cabin worked together and installed a connection “bridge” between the three modules that could assist taikonauts with crawling outside the module and better stabilize the station’s T-shaped structure.
Cai, who only had his first space walk in September, tried the first cross-module walk using this bridge.
Li Wei, deputy designer in charge of China Space Station General System with the China Academy of Space Technology, told CGTN that such equipment could help widen taikonauts’ scope of activities.
“Without this piece of equipment, taikonauts cannot move on their own from Wentian module to Tianhe core module or Mengtian module. Now, our taikonauts will be able to move around easier,” Li said. “It doubling the distance the taikonauts can travel to.”
Li said this spacewalk also stood out as “the first spacewalk supported by all the three-module assembly.” “For example, we used signal relay from all three modules in this spacewalk,” Li added.
The taikonauts also lifted a panoramic camera outside the Wentian lab module and added a handle on the small robotic arm.
This is the seventh round of EVAs at China’s space station.
The Shenzhou-14 taikonauts successfully completed their first two rounds of EVAs in September, both from the airlock cabin of the Wentian lab module. The first EVAs lasted about seven hours, and the second lasted about five hours.
The three Shenzhou-14 crew members were sent into space in June on a record-breaking six-month mission.
As planned, the Shenzhou-14 crew will welcome the arrival of the Shenzhou-15 manned spacecraft at the space station later this month. The Shenzhou-15 crew members will join the Shenzhou-14 taikonauts for the space station’s first-ever crew handover.
–The Daily Mail-CGTN news exchange item
