Song Lingdong (; born August 1990) is a Chinese

People's Liberation Army Astronaut Corps The People's Liberation Army Astronaut Corps (PLAAC; ), also known as the Chinese Astronaut Corps (), is a Beijing-based deputy-corps grade People's Liberation Army Aerospace Force (PLAASF) and is responsible for the selection and training of ...

(PLAAC) taikonaut selected as part of the

Shenzhou program Shenzhou may refer to: * Shenzhou, or "Divine Land", one of the Chinese names of China * Shenzhou program, a crewed spaceflight initiative by the People's Republic of China * Shenzhou (spacecraft), spacecraft from China which first carried a Chi ...

Biography

Song was born in

Heze Heze (), formerly known as Caozhou, is the westernmost prefecture-level city in Shandong province, China, bordering Jining to the east and the provinces of Henan and Anhui to the west and south respectively.The total area is 12238.62 square kilo ...

Shandong Shandong is a coastal Provinces of China, province in East China. Shandong has played a major role in Chinese history since the beginning of Chinese civilization along the lower reaches of the Yellow River. It has served as a pivotal cultural ...

, in August 1990. In 2007, he enrolled at Air Force Aviation University. He enlisted in the

People's Liberation Army The People's Liberation Army (PLA) is the military of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the People's Republic of China (PRC). It consists of four Military branch, services—People's Liberation Army Ground Force, Ground Force, People's ...

(PLA) in September 2008, and joined the

Chinese Communist Party The Communist Party of China (CPC), also translated into English as Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is the founding and One-party state, sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Founded in 1921, the CCP emerged victorious in the ...

(CCP) in March 2013. Song was an air force pilot. On 29 October 2024, Cai Xuzhe, Song Lingdong and Wang Haoze were assigned to the

Shenzhou 19 Shenzhou 19 () was a Chinese spaceflight to the Tiangong space station that was launched on 29 October 2024 and returned to Earth on 30 April 2025. It carried three crew members on board a Shenzhou spacecraft. The mission was the 14th crewed C ...

crewed spaceflight mission. Then, on 17 December 2024, during this mission's first EVA, he broke the record with Cai Xuzhe for the longest spacewalk in human history, of 9 hours and 6 minutes, with the assistance of the space station's robotic arms and ground-based scientific personnel, completed tasks such as the installation of space debris protection devices, inspection, and maintenance of external equipment and facilities.

References

1990 births Living people People from Heze PLA Air Force Aviation University alumni Shenzhou program astronauts People's Liberation Army Astronaut Corps People's Liberation Army Air Force personnel {{China-bio-stub