(ORDO NEWS) — The crew of China‘s orbiting space station has completed the first of several planned spacewalks.
The Chinese National Space Administration said taikonauts Fei Junlong and Zhang Lu had been in outer space for about seven hours.
During this time, they completed a number of tasks, including the installation of additional pumps outside of the Mengtian laboratory module.
The third member of the Shenzhou-15 mission, Deng Qingming, provided assistance from inside the station. The station’s crew plans to perform several more spacewalks as part of their six-month mission.
China completed construction of the Tiangong station last November, adding a third Mengtian module.
The Tiangong weighs about 66 tons and can carry up to six people, although only three taikonauts will be on board during each mission.
The service life of the Chinese station will be from 10 to 15 years. If the ISS retires around the end of this decade, Tiangong could become the only operational space station.
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