The Shenzhou-17 crew members aboard China's orbiting space station completed their first extravehicular activity at 9:35 p.m. (Beijing Time), according to the China Manned Space Agency on Thursday.

During the 7.5-hour-long extravehicular activity, Shenzhou-17 commander Tang Hongbo, crew members Tang Shengjie and Jiang Xinlin cooperated closely with the ground staff and used robotic arms to complete repairing the solar panels on the core module of the space station, reentering the station after completing the task.

Commander Tang, the first taikonaut to return to the CSS, made his second spacewalk after two years. Meanwhile, Tang Shengjie became the youngest taikonaut in China's history to carry out spacewalks.

According to the plan, the Shenzhou-17 crew will conduct a slew of scientific experiments and technology verification, as well as more extravehicular activities and payload missions.

The taikonauts have been stationed in the space station for nearly a third of their six-month space mission. They completed the crew rotation with the Shenzhou-16 astronauts and conducted tasks, including space station maintenance, life and health support, spacesuit inspection and testing, a Tianzhou-6 cargo ship equipment inspection and preparation for the upcoming spacewalk, according to the CMSA.

They also underwent robotic arm operation training, emergency life-saving, medical rescue, and full-system pressure emergency drills. Experiments in space science are advancing steadily.