Chinese astronaut conducts record-tying 6th spacewalk outside Tiangong space station (video)

A pair of Chinese astronauts ventured outside the Tiangong space station on Monday (March 16) — and one of them made some history.

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an astronaut in a white spacesuit conducts a spacewalk outside a space station, with earth in the background — Shenzhou 21 mission commander Zhang Lu conducted his sixth spacewalk on March 16, 2025 tying the record for most EVAs for a Chinese astronaut. (Image credit: CCTV)

It was the pair's second EVA, or spacewalk, during the Shenzhou 21 mission. It followed a first EVA in December 2025, during which Zhang and Wu inspected a crack in the viewport window of the Shenzhou 20 spacecraft. The Shenzhou 20 crew had already returned home in the Shenzhou 21 capsule due to the suspected debris damage to their own Shenzhou 20 spacecraft.

The EVA brings Zhang's career total to six, tying him with Chen Dong for the most spacewalks by a Chinese astronaut. The 49-year-old Zhang made his first trip to space on Shenzhou 15 in late 2022 and participated in four spacewalks during that 186-day-long mission. Chen Dong performed three EVAs on Shenzhou 14 in 2022 and three more on the recent Shenzhou 20 mission.

The overall record for most spacewalks is held by cosmonaut Anatoly Solovyev. He performed 16 of them during his spaceflight career, which ran from 1988 to 1999. Former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson holds the American record with 10.

China aims to keep Tiangong permanently occupied for at least a decade. It plans to launch the Shenzhou 23 and Shenzhou 24 crewed missions to the space station this year, along with a Tianzhou cargo spacecraft. The uncrewed Shenzhou 22 spacecraft was launched to the orbital outpost late last year to provide a lifeboat for the Shenzhou 21 crew due to the Shenzhou 20 crisis.

China's next-generation Mengzhou crew capsule could also make a first visit to Tiangong this year, following the success of a major test in February.

Andrew is a freelance space journalist with a focus on reporting on China's rapidly growing space sector. He began writing for Space.com in 2019 and writes for SpaceNews, IEEE Spectrum, National Geographic, Sky & Telescope, New Scientist and others. Andrew first caught the space bug when, as a youngster, he saw Voyager images of other worlds in our solar system for the first time. Away from space, Andrew enjoys trail running in the forests of Finland. You can follow him on Twitter @AJ_FI.