China's 2 astronauts go on a four-hour spacewalk outside new Tiangong station; Watch

In a significant development, two Chinese astronauts went on a four-hour spacewalk outside the country's growing Tiangong station on Saturday. According to the state-media CCTV News channel, both the spaceman move out to work on its newest laboratory module. The media reported that Cai Xuzhe and Chen Dong installed pumps, a handle to open the hatch door from outside in an emergency, and a foot-stop to fix an astronaut’s feet to a robotic arm. Both began their spacewalk Saturday at around 1:35 am EDT outside the Tiangong space station and spent 4 hours and 12 minutes working on its new Wentian laboratory module.

"With the aid of the small mechanical arm, astronauts Cai and Chen conducted a series of extravehicular tasks, including the installation of extravehicular assistance handles and the extended pump set of the load circuits. They also verified the extravehicular rescue capability," Space.com quoted the Chinese media as saying. 

China's Assistant Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Hua Chunying tweeted a video of the spacewalk. “Second spacewalk of Taikonauts! Spectacular footage of #Shenzhou14 crew completing the second, 5-hour extravehicular activities," she tweeted. Notably, Liu and Chen conducted the first spacewalk about two weeks ago. According to the Chinese space agency, both astronauts will be joined by four other spacemen near the end of the mission. This would be the first time when the space station has six people on board.

China's space mission is flourishing despite being ditched by the United States

It is worth mentioning Beijing China is building its own space station after the United States excluded them claiming military involvement in running the country's space program. During the exclusion, several American officials said they had faced a host of strategic challenges from China’s space ambitions, in an echo of the U.S.-Soviet rivalry that prompted the race to the moon in the 1960s. Despite being excluded by the US, it became the third country to send a person into space in 2003, following the former Soviet Union and the United States. It has sent rovers to the moon and Mars and brought lunar samples back to Earth.

Image: AP