China awards medals to Shenzhou-19 astronauts

Three astronauts who took part in the Shenzhou-19 crewed mission were on Wednesday awarded medals for their services to China's space endeavors.

Cai Xuzhe was honored with a second-class aerospace achievement medal. Song Lingdong and Wang Haoze received third-class aerospace achievement medals and the honorary title of "Heroic Astronaut."

The decision to honor them was made by the Communist Party of China Central Committee, the State Council and the Central Military Commission.

Cai participated in two spaceflight missions -- Shenzhou-14 and Shenzhou-19 and completed a total of five extravehicular activities, making him the astronaut with the highest number of extravehicular outings in China.

Song accomplished three extravehicular activities on his first spaceflight, thus becoming the country's first astronaut born after 1990 to conduct an extravehicular activity.

Wang is China's first female aerospace flight engineer to reside in the space station.

The Shenzhou-19 manned spaceship was launched on Oct. 30, 2024, and docked with the Chinese space station's core module Tianhe to form a combination. The trio returned to Earth on April 30.

During their six-month stay in orbit, the crew conducted three extravehicular activities and performed six payload transfer operations in and out of the airlock cabin.

They also completed over 90 construction, upgrading, and maintenance tasks for the space station, and carried out more than 80 space science experiments and technology tests.

During the mission, the Shenzhou-19 crew set a world record for the longest single extravehicular activity duration by Chinese astronauts -- nine hours in total.