Two crew members of the space station that China is building carried out this Friday first Extravehicular Mission, during which they verified some capabilities of the ship, among other tasks, official media collect today.
This is the first time that astronauts from the Asian country have used the pressurized cabin of the Wentian laboratory-modulehelped by his robotic arm, to complete activities outside the station, the state agency Xinhua reported.
With the cooperation of tercer tripulante, Cai Xuzhefrom inside, astronauts Chen Dong y Liu Yan they installed a set of valves, hoisted the module’s panoramic camera and verified the capability of emergency return to the interior of the ship.
The space walk lasted for about six hoursduring which the crew also tested their cooperation with the module’s mechanical arm and the performance of the Wentian’s pressurized cabin and extravehicular activity support equipment.
According to the Space Agency for Manned Missions (AEMT), the mission was “a success” and was completed at 0.33 local time today (16.33 GMT Thursday).
six month stay
The three astronauts arrived on June 5 aboard the ship Shenzhou-14 to the Chinese space station Tiangongwhere they are expected to spend six months.
The previous crew, the one that arrived aboard Shenzhou-13, made progress in preparing for the Chinese space station – including two spacewalks, more than twenty scientific experiments and data collection – while members of Shenzhou-14 and those of the upcoming Shenzhou-15 must definitively finish the construction work of the Tiangong, which should be finished by the end of 2022, according to the original plans.
The Tiangong, whose name means heavenly palace in mandarin, it is expected to work for a few 15 years orbiting about 400 kilometers from the earth’s surface.
Will it be the only station?
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By 2024, it is likely to become the world’s only space station if the International Space Station, a US-led initiative to which China is barred due to military ties to its space program, is withdrawn that year as it stands. as planned.
In recent years, the Chinese space program has achieved successes such as landing the Chang’e 4 probe on the hidden side of the Moon – the first time it has been achieved – and reaching Mars for the first time, becoming the third country – after the United States United States and the former Soviet Union – to land.