China’s Shenzhou-19 astronauts reveal record spacewalk featured surprise repair

China’s astronauts had to improvise a repair to the Tiangong space station without specialised tools during their record-breaking nine-hour space walk at the end of last year, according to the mission’s commander.

In an interview with state broadcaster CCTV aired on Sunday, Shenzhou-19 mission commander Cai Xuzhe said a payload adaptor unexpectedly jammed during a cargo installation outside the spacecraft and the team had to add the repair to their spacewalk tasks.

Cai said it was something they had not trained for and he was worried about doing irreparable damage.

“I feared that my intervention might make the damage worse,” he said.

The adaptor is a docking mechanism used for various tasks, such as extravehicular (EVA) experiments or the replacement and maintenance of spacecraft or platform components.

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Chinese astronauts complete world record-breaking 9-hour spacewalk

Chinese astronauts complete world record-breaking 9-hour spacewalk

Normally, a robotic arm can unlock the two locks on the adaptor, but the automatic process failed and left one half of the adaptor still attached to the spacecraft. It needed to be fixed manually.