Chinese Woman Walks In Space, Scripts History

Space Walk: Authorities announced on Monday that astronaut Wang Yaping had become the first Chinese woman to walk in space after her team completed a six-hour excursion outside the Tiangong space station as part of its continuing development.

After landing a rover on Mars and sending probes to the Moon, Tiangong - which means "heavenly palace" - is the latest triumph in China's effort to become a major space power.

The station's core module was launched into orbit earlier this year, and it is anticipated to be operational by 2022. On Sunday night, Wang and her colleague Zhai Zhigang exited the module, waving to the camera while attached to the station's outside, and installed a suspension mechanism and transfer connections.

According to the China Manned Space (CMS) agency, the third member of the crew, Ye Guangfu, assisted from within the station.

"This marks the first extravehicular activity of the Shenzhou-13 crew, and it is also the first in China’s space history involving the participation of a woman astronaut," said CMS.

"The whole process was smooth and successful," the agency added.

The three astronauts are the second crew to dwell aboard Tiangong, which is projected to last at least ten years. Wang is the first female visitor to the site.

The operation took place mere weeks after Wang, Zhai, and the third team member, Ye Guangfu, took off from the Jiuquan launch centre in the Gobi desert of northwest China. The team is expected to stay at the station for six months.

Svetlana Savitskaya, a Soviet astronaut, became the first woman to walk in space in 1984. Later that year, Kathryn Sullivan became the first American woman to accomplish so.