China’s second female astronaut and first to undertake a spacewalk, Wang Yaping, successfully completed a 6.5-hour spacewalk with Zhai Zhigang on November 8. They installed a suspension device and transfer connectors on the station’s robotic arm and testing safety equipment, the Global Times reported.
This is the second crew to take up long-term residence in China’s Tiangong space station. The three astronauts, Zhai, Wang and Ye Guangfu of the Shenzhou-13 mission, launched into orbit on a Long March 2-F rocket on October 16, one month after the first crew successfully returned to Earth after the 90-day Shenzhou-12 mission.
Wang, 41, who was previously a pilot in the air force of the People’s Liberation Army, is China’s first woman to work in the space lab.
The three astronauts will stay on board the space station for six months. Besides equipment assembly, they will conduct scientific experiments and technological tests and give lectures on space science.
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