The Shenzhou-17 crew members aboard China's orbiting space station completed their second extravehicular activity at 1:32 p.m. (Beijing Time), according to the China Manned Space Agency on Saturday.

Shenzhou-17 crew members Tang Hongbo, Tang Shengjie and Jiang Xinlin collaborated with the ground team to complete all planned tasks and returned to the space station during the 8-hour extravehicular activities.

This time the taikonauts completed the repair work on the solar panels of the core module, eliminating the minor impact from the hit by tiny particles in space. The performance of the solar panels was assessed to be back to normal.

This is the first time the taikonauts completed the maintenance task of the equipment outside of the orbiting spacecraft.

During the extravehicular activity, the astronauts also inspected the status of the space station cabin.

China launched the Shenzhou-17 manned spaceship from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China on October 25, 2023, for what is planned to be a six-month mission.

(Cover image: China Manned Space Agency)