Guwahati News Desk: Marking her name in the pages of history, Wang Yaping on Monday became the first Chinese woman astronaut to walk in space.
According to sources, Wang along with her male colleague Zhai Zhigang, moved out of the space station core module called ‘Tianhe’ and spent 6.5 hours of the spacewalk in the early hours of Monday and successfully returned to the module.
The China Manned Space Agency has referred to the event as the first spacewalk in Chinese space history involving a woman astronaut.
In addition, while Wang and Zhai conducted the extravehicular activities (EVAs) which included the spacewalk, the third member of the crew, Ye Guangfu played a supporting role from within the module.
The mission further tested the functions of the indigenously developed new-generation extravehicular spacesuits, the coordination between the astronauts and the mechanical arm, and the reliability and safety of supporting equipment related to the EVAs.
Moreover, Wang was selected for the present manned space mission in December 2019.
Furthermore, this is the second manned mission for China’s space station, which is under construction. Prior to this, three other astronauts, namely, Nie Haisheng, Liu Boming and Tang Hongbo, returned to earth on September 17 after a successful three-month stay in the space station module during which they carried out several tasks to build it.