The Shenzhou XV team mounted the equipment required for extravehicular scientific experiments and technological demonstrations during their previous spacewalks.
The Shenzhou XV mission crew reportedly beat previous crews on Saturday by finishing their fourth spacewalk, according to the China Manned Space Agency.
Senior Colonel Zhang Lu and Major General Fei Junlong, the mission’s commander, completed the spacewalk on Sunday afternoon, according to a press release from the space agency. After that, they returned to the Wentian science section.
The third crew member, Senior Colonel Deng Qingming, reportedly stayed on board the Tiangong space station to provide assistance. The organisation declined to go into detail about the specific duties performed by the crew or to say when or how long the spacewalk lasted.
The Shenzhou XV team mounted the equipment required for extravehicular scientific experiments and technological demonstrations during their previous spacewalks. According to agency representatives, Chinese astronauts now perform spacewalks on a regular basis depending on the requirements of the mission. On November 30, Fei’s team arrived at the station.
The Shenzhou XVI crew is slated to take over in May, but the astronauts are anticipated to stay until then.The three astronauts had been residing in the space station for 137 days as of Sunday afternoon.
Another development is the arrival on Thursday of the Long March 7 carrier rocket at the Wenchang Space Launch Center in the Hainan province to lift the Tianzhou 6 cargo spacecraft. Final inspections will be performed on the rocket and the cargo ship at the centre, according to the agency. In May, the Tianzhou 6 will be directed to dock with Tiangong.
Chinese spacecraft Shenzhou XV was launched on November 29, 2022, at 15:08 UTC. The mission was the Shenzhou program‘s fifteenth flight and the tenth crewed Chinese spaceflight.
On the fourth flight to the Tianhe core module, the first module of the Tiangong space station, the spacecraft carried three PLAAC Taikonauts from the People’s Liberation Army Astronaut Corps (PLAAC).
The Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center served as the launch site for the Long March 2F launch vehicle carrying the three-person crew.