Taikonauts Liu Boming and Tang Hongbo performed their first spacewalk outside the Chinese Space Station this weekend. For nearly seven hours, the duo carried out maintenance and assembly work. It was only the second spacewalk in the history of the country's space program.
A few weeks ago, China made an impression by sending its first crew to the main module of its new space station. The taikonauts Nie Haisheng, Liu Boming and Tang Hongbo will spend three months on board as part of this mission called Shenzhou-12. Two of them – Liu Boming and Tang Hongbo – began an extravehicular activity (EVA) of six hours and 46 minutes on Sunday. this Sunday at 8:11 a.m. (Beijing time). Liu Boming was the first to leave the base module, joined by his companion about three hours later.
Equipped with improved Chinese Feitian spacesuits, the two taikonauts have installed various tools that will support the station's future activities. Liu Boming began by attaching a footrest and platform to the end of the station's ten-meter-long robotic arm, then mounted the arm himself. The two taikonauts then extended a panoramic camera before installing other equipment using the robotic arm.
“After about 7 hours of outdoor activities, the two Shenzhou 12 mission teammates working closely together successfully completed all the tasks scheduled during the outing in space” , announced the Chinese Space Agency manned at the end of the EVA.
Remember that this mission was only the second spacewalk from the history of the country's space program. The very first EVA was carried out by Zhai Zhigang, commander of the Shenzhou 7 mission, in 2008. Incidentally, Liu Boming was also part of the crew at the time. A second spacewalk (the third in all) is also planned in a few weeks outside the new Chinese module.
When completed, Tiangong ("Heavenly Palace") will be China's first multi-module Space Station. In addition to hosting Chinese crews, the country plans to invite international partners to visit and work aboard the orbital outpost. Dmitry Rogozin, Director General of Roscosmos, notably expressed his intention to send cosmonauts there soon.
