Chinese astronauts completed the country’s first spacewalk outside their space station on Sunday, marking a key milestone in the country’s rapidly developing space program.
According to the China Manned Space Agency, the spacewalk is only the second by Chinese astronauts since the Shenzhou 7 manned mission in 2008, which was completed outside of a spacecraft (CMSA).
Two of them exited the Tiangong or Heavenly Palace core module of the space station on Sunday morning, according to the CMSA.
As part of its plans to have a fully crewed space station by December 2022, China launched the first core module, known as Tianhe or Harmony of the Heavens, on April 29.
China has previously operated two space labs in orbit, the Tiangong-1 and Tiangong-2, both of which were trials for the larger space station the country is now building.
Zhou Jianping, chief designer on the country’s manned space program said in June that while China is not currently considering foreign participation in the space station’s development, non-Chinese astronauts will “certainly” be welcomed in the years to come.
