Two taikonuts from China’s Shenzhou-19 mission have broken new ground in human space exploration by completing the longest space walk ever recorded.

Cai Xuzhe and Song Lingdong finished the nine-hour extravehicular activity at 9:57 p.m. Beijing time on Tuesday, breaking a record set by NASA astronauts in 2001.

“I have exited the cabin and feel great,” Song said as he began the EVA, in a video released by the China Manned Space Agency.

Song is the first Chinese taikonaut born in the 1990s to participate in a space walk.

The two taikonauts spent most of the EVA installing protective equipment to prevent China’s Tiangong space station being damaged by space debris. They also inspected and performed maintenance on Tiangong’s exterior systems.

Space walks are a high-risk activity that requires a high level of training and sophisticated support systems and equipment. Astronauts must undergo extensive ground training to prevent them experiencing motion sickness and disorientation during EVAs.

China completed its first space walk in 2008, when Zhai Zhigang spent 19 minutes and 35 seconds outside his spacecraft during the Shenzhou-7 mission. It became just the third country after the United States and Russia to do so.

Since then, Chinese taikonauts have taken part in another 17 space walks, with continual improvements to China’s Feitian space suit allowing them to spend progressively longer outside their spacecraft.

In May, the crew of Shenzhou-18 set a new national record by completing an 8.5-hour EVA. Now, just seven months later, Cai and Song have managed to surpass that feat.

In the process, they also broke the world record for the longest space walk, which was set by NASA astronauts from the STS-102 mission who spent 8 hours and 56 minutes outside their spacecraft on March 11, 2001.

The Shenzhou-19 crew has now been aboard the Tiangong space station for nearly 50 days, where they have been tasked with carrying out a variety of scientific experiments and maintenance tasks.

Part of their mission has involved studying a swarm of fruit flies that were delivered to the space station by the Tianzhou-8 cargo spacecraft in November. China believes the research could provide valuable insights into how humans will be physically affected by long-term space exploration.

The Shenzhou-19 crew is scheduled to return to Earth in late April or early May 2025. They are expected to complete several additional space walks before their return.

(Header image: Taikonaut Cai Xuzhe completes a record-breaking space walk outside the Tiangong space station on Dec. 17, 2024. Li Jie/Xinhua)