Skip to main content

Watch these astronauts score firsts on China’s new space station

Just a couple of weeks after arriving at China’s new space station, two astronauts have performed the first spacewalk at the orbiting outpost.

First spacewalk on the China Space Station

Sunday’s extravehicular activity (EVA), as spacewalks are officially known, was also the first to be performed as a pair by Chinese astronauts, as its only other spacewalk in 2008 involved a single crew member.

A video clip of the EVA shows astronaut Liu Boming working on the exterior of the space station as the second astronaut, Tang Hongbo, emerges from the hatch of the core Tianhe module. The other astronaut in the three-man crew, Nie Haisheng, stayed inside the station and assisted his two colleagues by operating a small robotic arm located on the outside of the satellite.

According to SpaceNews, the pair attached foot restraints during the walk, and also installed an extravehicular working platform before setting up a panoramic camera.

The EVA lasted for seven hours with a second one expected to take place later in the three-month mission.

“The safe return of astronauts Liu Boming and Tang Hongbo to the Tianhe core module marks the complete success of the first spacewalk in our country’s space station construction,” the China Manned Space Agency said in a statement.

The astronauts have access to around 50 cubic meters of living space in the core module, which is orbiting around 230 miles above Earth, 20 miles below the International Space Station (ISS). Two laboratory capsules coming to China’s new station at a later date will increase the habitable space to 110 cubic meters, which is about a third of the habitable space on the ISS.

The core module features six zones for work, sleep, sanitation, dining, healthcare, and exercise, according to Chinese news outlet CGTN, and the astronauts can reportedly enjoy 120 different dishes, each one geared toward maintaining good health during their stay.

With a U.S. law preventing Chinese involvement in the ISS, the Asian nation decided to go it alone and build its own orbiting laboratory. The project started with the Tiangong-1 prototype in 2011 and the Tiangong-2 prototype five years later, after which it deployed the core module of its current, largest, and most advanced station in April 2021.

China is currently riding high with its space program as it seeks to explore well beyond its borders and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers. Indeed, China’s President Xi Jinping earlier stated that the country’s first fully operational space station will open “new horizons” in humanity’s quest to learn more about the cosmos.

Last year China launched a rover mission to Mars that arrived at the red planet in February 2021, and also successfully completed a mission to the moon that delivered lunar rocks to Earth.

Editors' Recommendations

Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
How to watch Crew-8 arrive at the space station tonight
A SpaceX Crew Dragon carrying the Ax-3 crew departs from the space station in February 2024.

NASA Live: Official Stream of NASA TV

SpaceX’s Crew-8 members are about to arrive at the International Space Station after launching from the Kennedy Space Center on Monday.

Read more
Air is leaking from Russian module of the International Space Station
The International Space Station.

The International Space Station (ISS) is experiencing a leak from a Russian module, but NASA assures the public that it is no threat to the crew on board. While it is not usual for a small amount of air to leak from the ISS regularly, this leak has recently increased in volume, which is why it has been closely observed.

At a briefing regarding the upcoming launch of Crew-8 to the station, now rescheduled for late Saturday night, Joel Montalbano, manager of the International Space Station Program, spoke about the leak. Montalbano said the leak had been observed since before the launch of the Russian Progress resupply craft in February, when it was leaking at a rate of around 1 pound per day. But since the arrival of the Progress craft, it has increased to around 2 pounds per day.

Read more
How to watch SpaceX Crew-8 launch to the space station tonight
SpaceX's Crew-8 ahead of launch.

NASA Live: Official Stream of NASA TV

UPDATE: NASA and SpaceX had been targeting early Saturday for the Crew 8 launch, but a forecast of strong winds in the ascent corridor prompted the mission team to switch to a new targeted launch time of 10:53 p.m. ET (7:53 p.m. PT) on Sunday, March 3. The article below has been updated to reflect this change. 

Read more