Beijing, Nov. 8 (BNA): Wang Yaping has become the first Chinese woman to undertake a spacewalk as part of a six-month mission to the country’s space station.
Wang and fellow astronaut Zhai Zhigang left the station’s main unit on Sunday evening, and spent more than six hours outside installing equipment and conducting tests along with the station’s robotic service arm, according to China’s manned space agency.
CMS said on its website that the third crew member, Ye Guangfu, helped from inside the station.
Wang, 41, and Zhai, 55, traveled to China’s two retired experimental space stations, and Zhai conducted China’s first spacewalk in 13 years.
The three are the second crew on the permanent station, and the mission that began with their arrival on October 16 is set to be the longest stretch of time in space yet for Chinese astronauts.
The station’s Tianhe unit will be connected next year by two other divisions, Mingtian and Wentian. The completed station will weigh about 66 tons, much smaller than the International Space Station, which launched its first module in 1998 and weighs about 450 tons.
Three spacewalks are planned to install equipment in preparation for the expansion of the station, while the crew will also assess living conditions in the Tianhe unit and conduct experiments in space medicine and other fields.
China’s military-run space program plans to send multiple crews to the station over the next two years to make it fully operational.
MI