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Chinese astronauts take a walk to fix damaged solar panel on Tiangong space station
- Two members of the Shenzhou 17 crew leave the station for eight hours to finish repairs started in December
- Mission completed with the aid of a robotic arm and a third member on board
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Astronauts aboard China’s Tiangong space station performed the orbiting facility’s second spacewalk for repairs on Saturday in an eight-hour mission to finish fixing damaged solar panels.
Astronauts Tang Hongbo and Jiang Xinlin left the station and used a robotic arm mounted on the outside of the facility to repair the panels on the Tianhe core module, the China Manned Space Agency said.
Tang Shengjie, the third member of the Shenzhou 17 crew, stayed on board and coordinated with scientists on Earth to help control the robotic arm.
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“This is the first time that Chinese astronauts have completed the maintenance of extravehicular facilities of an orbiting spacecraft,” the agency said on Saturday.
Astronauts Tang Hongbo and Jiang returned safely to the Wentian experimental lab module, it said.
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During the repair mission, the astronauts also inspected the station’s surface.
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