Shenzhou XII crew members carry out first spacewalk

At a meeting with reporters at the Jiuquan center one day ahead of their space journey, Liu said that compared with the extravehicular operation in the Shenzhou VII mission, spacewalks in the Shenzhou XII will be much longer and more sophisticated.

"And I believe that there will be difficulties and challenges. Therefore, we have undergone comprehensive, systematic and stringent training," he said. "We will strive to make every extravehicular task successful through our cooperation and with support from ground control."

Ji Qiming, assistant director of the China Manned Space Agency, said that astronauts will carry out two lengthy spacewalks during the Shenzhou XII mission and use external mechanical arms to install equipment and check the Tianhe module's condition.

Before Sunday, Chinese astronauts had conduct only one spacewalk, which was done by Liu Boming and Zhai Zhigang in the three-day Shenzhou VII spaceflight in September 2008. Another member in that mission -- Jing Haipeng – was in their spacecraft to control and monitor equipment.

During the operation, Zhai stayed out of the spacecraft for about 15 minutes while Liu moved the upper half of his body out of the craft for several minutes to assist Zhai.