Chinese astronauts step into space

Two of the three astronauts aboard the Chinese space station Tiangong (“Sky Palace”) completed a six-hour spacewalk on Friday without incident, the Human Space Flight Agency (CMSA) said. It started in June and is scheduled to last six months.

Astronaut Chen Dong, 43, and teammate Liu Yang, 43, both Army pilots, returned to the station shortly after midnight, according to CMSA, which described the operation as a “complete success.” The space agency has released a video of the Chinese, in white astronaut suits, in front of a azure planet Earth rolling over the horizon. The astronauts privately set out to install the camera and pumps and tested the station’s emergency return procedure as well as a new robotic arm.

Named in Chinese Tiangong, but also known by its acronym CSS (for “Chinese Space Station” in English), the space station should be completed by the end of the year with the arrival of the third and final unit. And then the final station will be T-shaped, and it will be similar in size to the former Soviet Mir station. It must be at least 10 years old. China is investing billions of euros in its space programme. The Asian giant sent its first astronaut into space in 2003.

In 2019, the country landed a device on the far side of the moon, for the first time in the world. In 2020, China returned samples from the Moon and the following year landed a small robot on Mars.