On the afternoon of November 7, Chinese astronauts performed the first spacewalk. This is also the first time the country has sent a female astronaut into space.
At 1:16 a.m. on November 8, two of the three Shenzhou-13 crew members, Zhuo Zhigang and Wang Yaping, completed the first spacewalk, which lasted for about 6.5 hours and returned. about the Thien Hoa core module of the space station.
This is the third spacewalk in the construction phase of the country’s space station, to verify the performance of the space suit created by China, the China Manned Space Administration (CMSA) said. production, the ability of astronauts to work with robotic arms, as well as the reliability and safety of assistive devices.The spacewalk on November 7 was the first in the country’s history to be conducted by a male and a female astronaut, according to the agency.
With this achievement, female astronaut Wang Yaping became the first Chinese woman to step into space, and helped add members to the global team of female astronauts who have carried out missions. similar trip. Before Vuong, as of October 2019, 15 women worldwide have participated in 42 spacewalks since 1984.
Also on November 7, the Shenzhou-13 crew conducted an emergency evacuation exercise in orbit for the first time after being in space for 23 days.
According to Ms. Wang Chunhui, deputy chief designer of the Astronaut System of the China Astronaut Center, the environment in space is extremely complex and dangerous, one of the main threats facing the space station. surface is the impact of external debris. The main purpose of this maneuver is to ensure that astronauts can safely evacuate after the space station is damaged and depressurized.
It is known that the manned spacecraft Shenzhou-13 was launched into space on October 16. The mission of this spacecraft is to verify technologies that ensure the health, life and work of astronauts in orbit for long periods of time on the space station.
After the first spacewalk, the Shenzhou-13 crew will make one or two more spacewalks during their six-month stay on the space station.
