Chinese astronauts perform record-breaking 8.5 hours long spacewalk

Two Chinese astronauts have completed a record-breaking spacewalk outside their country's Tiangong space station. 

Ye Guangfu and Li Guangsu spent 8.5 hours outside the station, breaking the previous record for the longest spacewalk by Chinese astronauts, which was 8 hours, Independent reported.

China’s Manned Space Agency, announcing the big feat in a statement, said that the "duo completed the installation of the space station’s space debris protection device and the inspection of extravehicular equipment and facilities".

The two spacewalkers were assisted by a third astronaut, who monitored them and their activities from inside the station. 

From Earth, Tiangong’s robotic arm and an astronaut team were also part of the spacewalking mission.

This was China’s first spacewalk as part of the six-month-long Shenzhou 18 mission, which was launched in April.

"According to the plan, a large number of scientific experiments and technical tests, as well as astronaut crew extravehicular activities and application payload extravehicular missions, will be carried out during the Shenzhou 18 manned flight mission," the space agency said.

After the US and the former Soviet Union, China in 2003 became the third country in the world to launch a person into space using its own resources.