| China performs its first spacewalk |
A Chinese astronaut stepped outside the Shenzhou 7 spacecraft Saturday and waved a small red Chinese flag for the millions of his countrymen watching on live television and cheering over their nation's latest conquest.
With the 15-minute spacewalk, China became the 3rd country to accomplish the feat, following the United States and Russia.
"In the vast space, I felt proud of our motherland," astronaut Zhai Zhigang later told Chinese President Hu Jintao, who was at the control center in Beijing. Hu peppered him with questions about how it felt to be in space, and thanked him for a major breakthrough.
During the spacewalk, the tethered Zhai floated near the spacecraft and performed tests on lubricants. But the event seemed to be as much about public relations as science.
This was China's third manned space mission and the space culture is developing rapidly. The Chinese have their own word for astronaut, taikonaut -- from the Chinese word for space, taikong.
The country's leaders are hoping that the spacewalk will be followed by the development of a permanent space station by 2020. A manned moon landing might be attempted before that year, which is the target date for NASA's return trip. Such a feat would make them true competitors in a race once dominated by the United States and Russia.
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