Chinese astronauts Cai Xuzhe, Chen Dong carry out spacewalk from new station

Chinese astronauts Cai Xuzhe and Chen Dong carried out a spacewalk on Saturday (September 17) from a new station called Tiangong which will be completed by the end of this year.

According to China's Xinhua News Agency, the astronauts installed a foot-stop to fix an astronaut’s feet to a robotic arm, a handle to open the hatch door from outside in an emergency and pumps at the station lab module Wentian.

Because China's military runs the country’s space programme, Beijing is building its own space station after being excluded by the USfrom the International Space Station.

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In an echo of the US-Soviet rivalry that prompted the race to the moon in the 1960s, American officials see a host of strategic challenges from China’s space ambitions.

During a six-month mission, that will oversee the completion of the space station Tiangong, the astronauts will ensure that it looks similar to the Soviet Mir station that orbited Earth from the 1980s until 2001.

Expected to operate for at least a decade, Tiangong's core module entered orbit early last year post the return of the last one to earth in April following 183 days on the space station.

China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) reported that the country's heavily promoted space programme has already seen the nation land a rover on Mars and send probes to the Moon.

(With inputs from agencies)

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