Two Chinese astronauts performed their first spacewalk from the Tiangong space station on Sunday, according to state television. Astronauts Liu Boming and Tang Hongbo were seen exiting the station in their space suits for a several-hour mission, during which they installed equipment outside the station and conducted tests. This event marks China's second spacewalk ever, following a Chinese astronaut's exit from the Shenzhou 7 spacecraft in 2008, which lasted only 20 minutes.
Chinese engineers developed a new space suit weighing around 100 kilograms for the mission, designed to be more comfortable for astronauts and enable longer missions in space. Three astronauts, led by Ni Haisheng, arrived at the Chinese space station two weeks ago for China's first crewed space mission in five years. During their three-month stay in space, the astronauts are expected to carry out various tasks at the station, test key functions, and conduct scientific experiments.
It’s noted that the space station is under construction, with two additional modules scheduled to be connected before its completion in 2022.
