BEIJING -- The Shenzhou-20 crew on board China's orbiting space station completed their mission's first series of extravehicular activities on Thursday, according to the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA).

The astronaut trio -- Chen Dong, Chen Zhongrui and Wang Jie -- worked for about eight hours and completed the task at 4:49 pm (Beijing Time), assisted by a team on Earth.

Chen Dong and Chen Zhongrui, tasked with conducting spacewalk operations, exited through the node cabin of the Tianhe core module. This marked the first time that astronauts had exited via the node cabin since the space station transitioned into its application and development phase.

The astronauts installed a debris protection device at its designated location. The device had been previously deployed outside through the cargo airlock and temporarily positioned by the robotic arm.

Also, external equipment was inspected and maintained. They have since returned to the core module safely, according to the CMSA.