fredag 20. august 2021

Chinese astronauts conduct second spacewalk outside planned space station

Chinese astronauts working on the country's planned space station carried out their second spacewalk on Friday, according to the China Manned Space Agency. Since they were sent into space in June, the three-man crew has been working and living on the Tianhe core module of the space station, the largest spacecraft developed by China to date. They plan to have the space station, called Tiangong or Heavenly Palace, fully crewed and operational by December 2022 -- an ambitious target for China's rapidly expanding space program.

Two of the astronauts, Nie Haisheng and Liu Boming, conducted the spacewalk on Friday morning local Beijing time, leaving the core module to carry out tasks such as installing equipment outside the space station and working on the attached robotic arm, said the space agency on the Chinese platform WeChat. The third astronaut, Tang Hongbo, provided support from inside the cabin.