China's Shenzhou-13 crew completes first spacewalk

The mission commander Zhai Zhigang, 55, opened the hatch to Tianhe's node cabin at 18:51 p.m. (1051 GMT), on Sunday, according to Chinese state television CCTV.

Zhai was joined by fellow astronaut Wang Yaping, 41, who became China's first female astronaut to conduct a spacewalk. Astronaut Ye Guangfu assisted the pair from inside the core module.

The pair returned to the core module at 1:16 am (1716 GMT, Sunday) on Monday after 6.5 hours and celebrated, CCTV said.

Shenzhou-13 is the second of four crewed missions needed to complete the space station by the end of 2022. During the first crewed mission that concluded in September, three other astronauts stayed on Tianhe for 90 days.