Chinese astronauts undertake seven-hour spacewalk

Chen Dong (right) and Liu Yang exit the space station lab module Wentian on Sept 1 and use a robotic arm to install new instruments outside the Tiangong space station. This photo has been inverted top to bottom. - China Daily

BEIJING (China Daily/Asia News Network): Chinese astronauts on the Shenzhou XIV mission have started carrying out their first spacewalk, also known as an extravehicular activity, which is scheduled to finish early on Friday morning, according to the China Manned Space Agency.

Mission commander Senior Colonel Chen Dong opened an extravehicular activity hatch on the Tiangong space station at 6:26pm on Thursday (Sept 1) Beijing time and then floated out of the station. He was followed by female crew member Senior Colonel Liu Yang, the agency said in a news release.