Chinese taikonaut walks in space CCTV report

A Chinese astronaut has become the first in his country's history to take a walk in space.

In an operation broadcast live on national TV, fighter pilot Zhai Zhigang emerged from the capsule orbiting the Earth to wave a Chinese flag.

Mr Zhai, 42, stayed outside the capsule for 15 minutes while his two fellow astronauts stayed in the spacecraft.

The exercise is seen as key to China's ambition to build an orbiting station in the next few years.

Mr Zhai began the manoeuvre just after 1630 Beijing Time (0830 GMT) on Saturday, and completed it about 15 minutes later.

"I'm feeling quite well. I greet the Chinese people and the people of the world," he said as he climbed out of the Shenzhou VII capsule.

His colleague, Liu Boming, also briefly got his head out of the capsule to hand him the flag.

Mr Zhai wore a Chinese-made spacesuit thought to have cost between £5m and £20m ($10m-$40m) for the space walk.

The yuhanguan was tethered to the capsule with an umbilical cable.

Mr Zhai retrieved an externally mounted experiment.

He is on the mission with two other "yuhangyuan" (astronauts) - Liu Boming and Jing Haipeng. -- bbc.co.uk

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Chinese
• space
• walk
• EVA
• astronaut
• taikonaut

[henik9]

Why do they call it space "walking"? You can't walk in space so wouldn't it just be space "floating"?

[NelielTuOderswank]

@fanbutton Its not fake, theres no such thing as weightless in orbit, its called microgravity, everything still accelerates toward the earth due to orbital decay, and faking a space mission is impossible, the bloated radar signature and transponder signature are proof enough, not to mention theres nothing to gain by faking a mission into space, even if they did fake it what would be the point? This is about science, not politics. Don't be an imbecile.

[thunderdragon14]

This is quite a leap seeing as China has no world-class brand anything.

[AnjuABCDE]

@JADEGOODYSCORPSE Your brain is fake. Obviously the sun is on the other side of the space craft. you useless shit.

[JADEGOODYSCORPSE]

the world is lit up , they are lit up. they are in daylight , Where the hell is the sun????

just another thing to add to this whole fake spacewalk , all fake .

[hersheyeyana25]

bubble in 1:56

[TheWorldIsRound2012]

UFO @ 2:30?

[fanbutton]

at the end of this video you can see part of the restraining harness or selt belt dangling beneath the astronaut as if swinging downward due to gravity. Something that is impossible in a freefall or weightless environment. Also the newspaper or whatever that is he is reading buckles as if in a gravitational field. Why do countries have to fake stuff all the time?  They should have at least hired someone like steven speilsberg to make it look more realistic.

[ilMitico69]

the speaker is such an idiot, chinese will lead the world my dear american fellow so do not be so ironic !

[MjrDario]

@henik9 your right i'd probably be moonwalking LOL XD

[kurcinn]

Yes, and Tanzanian astronauts landed on Mercury.