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China has crossed another milestone in its space program. The country successfully launched its first spacewalk mission, touted to be the most challenging and 'sacred' mission till date, on Thursday - 25th September 2008. As a part of the mission, China launched its third manned spacecraft - Shenzhou 7, with three astronauts on board, namely Zhai Zhigang, Liu Boming and Jing Haipeng.
The spacecraft blasted off atop a 'Long March 2F' rocket at 9:10 pm (6:40 pm IST), under clear night skies. The venue of the launch was Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in Gansu Province, a part of northwestern China. It is expected that the spacewalk by one of the astronauts will take place either on Friday or Saturday. All the three astronauts on board the mission are fighter pilots, aged 42 years. They are expected to orbit the earth for three days. Thereafter, one of them will come out of the cabin and float about 343 km above earth.
During the mission, the astronauts are likely to carry out China's first spacewalk or extravehicular activity (EVA) with homemade EVA space suit. This marks a further leap in China's space technology. The presence of Chinese President and Communist Party Chief - Hu Jintao at the launch site, hailing the astronauts, was shown live on state television and stresses the importance of the mission's success for China's ruling Communist Party.
