posted 04-24-2025 02:53 PM               

Shenzhou-20 crew arrives at China's Tiangong space station for 6-month stay

A new crew of three Chinese taikonauts have arrived on board their country's space station, beginning a six-month stay only six-and-a-half hours after they launched.

China's Shenzhou-20 crew docked to the Tiangong ("Heavenly Palace") orbiting outpost at 11:49 a.m. EDT (1549 GMT; 11:49 p.m. Beijing Time) Thursday (April 24), where they joined the outgoing Shenzhou-19 crew for a brief handover period. Shenzhou-20 commander Chen Dong, now on his third spaceflight — his second to fly to the station — led Chen Zhongrui and Wang Jie on their first mission.

posted 05-22-2025 07:55 AM               

Shenzhou-20 crew successfully completes first extravehicular activity

At 16:49 Beijing time [4:49 a.m. EDT or 0849 GMT] on May 22, 2025, the Shenzhou-20 astronauts completed about 8 hours of extravehicular activities.

Chen Dong, Chen Zhongrui and Wang Jie worked closely together and, with the support of ground scientific researchers, the astronauts exited the core module node module and installed the space debris protection device that had been deployed through the cargo airlock and moved to the transfer position by the robotic arm. They also carried out tasks such as inspection and disposal of extravehicular equipment and facilities.

The extravehicular astronauts Chen Dong and Chen Zhongrui have safely returned to the Tianhe core module and the extravehicular activities were a complete success.

This is the first time that astronauts have exited the space module through the Tianhe core module node module since the space station entered the application and development stage. The astronaut extravehicular and cargo extravehicular missions were implemented in conjunction for the first time.

Astronaut Chen Dong walked in space again after two years, and astronaut Chen Zhongrui performed an extravehicular mission for the first time.