This Is a First for China's Space Program

Wang Yaping has become the first Chinese woman to conduct a spacewalk as part of a six-month mission to the country's space station, per the AP. Wang and fellow astronaut Zhai Zhigang left the station's main module on Sunday evening, spending more than six hours outside installing equipment and carrying out tests alongside the station's robotic service arm, according to the China Manned Space agency. Soviet cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya was the first woman to walk in space in 1984. Kathryn Sullivan became the first American woman to do so later the same year.

During Monday's spacewalk, the third member of the Chinese crew, Ye Guangfu, assisted from inside the station. Wang, 41, and Zhai, 55, had both traveled to China's now-retired experimental space stations, and Zhai conducted China's first spacewalk 13 years ago. The three are the second crew on the permanent station, and the mission that began with their arrival Oct. 16 is scheduled to be the longest stretch of time in space yet for Chinese astronauts. The Tianhe module of the station will be connected next year to two more sections named Mengtian and Wentian. China's military-run space program plans to send multiple crews to the station over the next two years to make it fully functional.

(More China stories.)