Launch of Shenzhou 7

Shenzhou 7 was China's third crewed spaceflight, launched on a Long March 2F rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. It carried three taikonauts, Zhai Zhigang, Liu Boming and Jing Haipeng, and lasted about three days. Its main achievement was China's first spacewalk, carried out by Zhai Zhigang in a Chinese-made Feitian suit while Liu Boming stood ready at the hatch. The crew also released a small companion satellite. The capsule landed in Inner Mongolia on 28 September. China thus became the third country, after the Soviet Union and the United States, to carry out an independent spacewalk, a step toward its later space station.

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