Taking a ‘walk’ in space

Final frontier: Shenzhou XIII’s mission crew (from left) Ye, Zhai and Wang. — China Daily/ANN

BEIJING: China’s Shenzhou XIII mission crew was scheduled to carry out their second extravehicular activity, or spacewalk, according to the China Manned Space Agency.Major General Zhai Zhigang, the mission commander, and Senior Colonel Ye Guangfu would conduct the spacewalk yesterday while Senior Colonel Wang Yaping would stay inside the Tiangong space station to support the extravehicular operations, the agency said in a brief statement on Saturday afternoon.

The Shenzhou XIII mission was launched on Oct 16 by a Long March 2F carrier rocket that blasted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in northwestern China’s Gobi Desert, with the crew soon entering the Tiangong space station.