Chinese military pilot Wang Yaping on Monday became the country’s first woman astronaut to walk in space as she moved out of the under-construction space station and took part in extravehicular activities along with her male colleague, the official media here reported.
Wang and Zhai Zhigang moved out of the space station core module called Tianhe and spent six and a half hours walking in space early on Monday. Later they successfully returned to the module, Xinhua news agency reported. This marks the first spacewalk in Chinese space history by a woman astronaut, the China Manned Space Agency said in a statement. Wang’s achievement has expanded the team of global female astronauts who have conducted spacewalks.
The three were launched into space on October 16 for a six-month-long mission in the space station, the longest manned mission in China’s space history.This is the second manned mission for China’s space station, which is under construction. Earlier, three other astronauts – Nie Haisheng, Liu Boming and Tang Hongbo – returned to earth on September 17 after a successful three-month stay in the space station module during which they carried out several tasks to build it.
China’s space station is also equipped with a robotic arm over which the US has raised concerns for its possible military applications. China in the past had launched several scavenger satellites fitted with robotic arms to gather and steer pace debris so that it burns up in Earth’s atmosphere. Once ready, China will be the only country to own a space station while the ageing International Space Station (ISS) is now a collaborative project of several countries.