HELSINKI – China’s Shenzhou-21 astronauts conducted an extravehicular activity outside the Tiangong space station on Thursday, installing debris-protection hardware and inspecting the orbital outpost.
Shenzhou-21 astronauts Zhang Lu and Wu Fei completed an approximately 5.5-hour spacewalk, or EVA, at 1:36 pm Eastern (1736 UTC) on April 16 (0136 April 17 Beijing Time), and returned to the Wentian experiment module’s airlock.
From inside Tiangong, the pair, supported by crew mate Zhang Hongzhang, the space station’s robotic arm and ground-based scientific personnel, successfully completed tasks including installing debris-protection hardware against micrometeoroids and orbital debris and inspecting external instruments and facilities, the China Manned Space Engineering Office (CMSEO) said in a statement.
Zhang Lu has conducted a total of seven spacewalks so far, setting a new record for the number of EVAs conducted by a Chinese astronaut. The mission’s previous EVAs took place in December and March, including inspection of the previously damaged Shenzhou-20 spacecraft.
China’s human spaceflight agency CMSEO had released information about the upcoming spacewalk a day or two before the event. However, recent EVAs, including this one, have been announced only hours after the spacewalk.
The Shenzhou-21 trio has been at Tiangong for more than five months, arriving at Tiangong on October 31, 2025, aboard the Shenzhou-21 spacecraft. Missions to Tiangong typically last about six months, but CMSEO said after the EVA that their stay would be extended by a month, using the later arrival of the Shenzhou-22 spacecraft.
While the crew arrived aboard Shenzhou-21, they are expected to return to Earth aboard the Shenzhou-22 spacecraft, possibly in mid- to late May.
Shenzhou-22 was scheduled to launch to Tiangong on November 25, 2025, following an earlier incident in which the Shenzhou-20 spacecraft’s viewport was damaged by debris shortly before its planned return. Instead the Shenzhou-20 crew returned to Earth aboard Shenzhou-21, necessitating a replacement spacecraft to serve as the station’s emergency return vehicle.
The subsequent arrival of Shenzhou-22 effectively resets the available on-orbit lifetime of the crew return vehicle, allowing the Shenzhou-21 astronauts to remain on Tiangong longer than the normal six-month mission.
CMSEO said the crew will continue to conduct scientific experiments and technical tests in orbit during the remainder of their mission and will celebrate China Space Day (April 24) while on the station. China celebrated its first National Space Day, which was chosen to commemorate the anniversary of China’s first satellite launch, Dongfanghong-1, in 1970. The event will be marked by conferences and outreach programs more widely in the city of Chengdu.
Tianwen-2, reusable launcher test flights
In a separate press conference on April 17, Liu Yunfeng, deputy director of the China National Space Administration (CNSA), said that the Tianwen-2 spacecraft is approaching its target asteroid for closer exploration, without giving specific details. The maneuvers may begin in June, with informal indications pointing to an early July rendezvous with near-Earth asteroid Kamo’olewa.
Liu said the human space flight program will carry out Shenzhou-23 and other crewed space flights, while several types of reusable rockets will undergo flight tests. The first flight of the reusable Long March 10B – a cargo version of the Long March 10A for crewed flights – is expected to take place during the April 28-30 window.
An attempt to recover the first stage at sea is also expected to take place using a ship equipped with a cable recovery system. Test flights of Long March 12B, Galactic Energy’s Pallas-1, and Orionspace’s Gravity-2, as well as Landspace’s ZUK-3, are also expected.
