Chinese Astronauts Complete Long-Duration Space Mission Studies

Beijing (ANTARA) — The crew of China’s Shenzhou-23 space station has completed assessments of emergency decision-making as well as emotional condition testing, as part of a broader effort to study how long-duration spaceflight affects behaviour, according to the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) on Monday (20 July).

The three crew members, including one woman from the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, have been aboard the Tiangong space station for nearly two months.

One of them will remain in orbit for a year to carry out China’s first human research programme in the space environment and to gather data on astronauts’ long-duration spaceflight.

In a recent weekly video released by the CMSA on Sunday (19 July), the crew can be seen wearing sensors and virtual reality (VR) headsets to monitor brain waves.

The tests form part of more than 100 science and application projects currently under way on the station.

Beyond space medicine, the crew have also installed a biological radiation exposure research device and external cameras on one of the station’s laboratory modules, and have tested measurement instruments brought aboard as mission payloads.

According to the agency, a new type of energy storage battery will be tested in orbit, with the results expected to support future upgrades to the space station.

China launched the Shenzhou-23 crewed spacecraft on 24 May. A key highlight of the mission is the plan for one crew member to stay in orbit for a year. Previously, crewed missions to Tiangong lasted around six months.

As China continues to pursue its deep-space exploration ambitions, long-duration missions are expected to become increasingly frequent, placing greater demands on the physical and mental resilience of its astronauts.