Beijing (Associated Press)-As part of a six-month mission to the Chinese Space Station, Wang Yaping became the first Chinese woman to take a space walk.
On November 7, astronaut Zhai Zhigang left the main cabin of the space station, and Wang followed. According to the China Manned Space Administration, they installed the equipment and tested it with the robotic service arm of the space station. The spacewalk lasted until the early morning of November 8.
According to the China Manned Space Administration, Wang and other astronaut Zhai Zhigang left the main cabin of the space station on the evening of November 7, installed equipment outside and conducted more than six hours of testing with the space station’s robotic service arm.
CMS stated on its website that Ye Guangfu, the third member of the crew, assisted from the station.
Both Wang, 41, and Zhai, 55, have been to China’s now decommissioned experimental space station, and Zhai conducted China’s first spacewalk 13 years ago.
These three are the second crew members of the permanent space station. The mission plan since their arrival on October 16 is the longest period of Chinese astronauts in space so far.
Next year, the Tianhe module of the station will be connected to two other sections named Mengtian and Wentian. The completed space station weighs about 66 tons, much smaller than the International Space Station, which launched its first module in 1998, weighing about 450 tons.
Three spacewalks are planned to install equipment to prepare for the expansion of the space station. At the same time, the astronauts will also evaluate the living conditions in the Tianhe capsule and conduct experiments in the fields of space medicine.
The Chinese military’s space program plans to send multiple astronauts to the space station in the next two years to make it fully operational.
Soviet astronaut Svetlana Savitskaya became the first woman to walk in space in 1984.
Later that year, Catherine Sullivan became the first American woman to do so.
In 2019, NASA astronauts Jessica Meyer and Christina Koch participated in the first all-female spacewalk to replace a malfunctioning power control unit outside the International Space Station. The walk lasted more than seven hours.
