11:30 The spacewalk is in the final stages of preparations. We are following the live broadcast and will update with a new article at the end of the spacewalk
The astronauts/technonauts aboard the Chinese spacecraft Shenzhou 7 are preparing for the first spacewalk in the history of the Chinese space program scheduled for Saturday.
Zhai Zhigang, the commander of the spacecraft is expected to become the first Chinese spacewalker. He plans to leave the spacecraft at 08:30 GMT (11:30 Israel time) for a spacewalk that will last 20 minutes. He will be assisted from inside the spacecraft by his teammates, Liu Boming and Jing Haifeng. Zhai told China's state-run Xinhua news agency that he was ready for the mission.
After putting on the space suit and depressurizing the orbital chamber (the part of the spacecraft that will remain in space, when the astronauts return to Earth in the reentry chamber). Zhai is ready to exit the chamber and use the handrail outside the spacecraft to move. "First the head and only then the legs" This is what Wu Bin, who is responsible for training the astronauts, says. "The astronaut is expected to wave at the camera installed on the outer side of the spacecraft as soon as his head and hands come out of the cabin," he said.
Zhai, a 42-year-old fighter pilot, plans to collect the samples of the solid lubricant from the surface of the spacecraft and put them inside. The spacecraft will then release a small 40-kilogram satellite that will circle the ship and transmit images to the control room. An important experiment as part of the operation will be the testing in real time and in field conditions of the Chinese space suit that was built for it. The suit, called Feitian (to fly in the sky in Chinese) cost 30 million yuan (about 4.4 million dollars), and it must protect Zhai from the harsh temperature and radiation conditions in space.
In China it is believed that the suit, which contains 10 layers and weighs 120 kg, will meet the challenge. All their prestige rests on the shoulders of the Moznaim, and not just Zhai's life.
We on the site will continue and follow the sale. If there are changes to the hours listed here, we will inform you in this article.
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We are busy with wars
Oh... they already did it in 1965 and the Chinese are only the third in the world to repeat it? What a lag. And where are we in all this story?
May the Chinese calm down. They did it already in 1965 so it is not an achievement who knows what.