China performs its first spacewalk

With the 15-minute spacewalk, China became the third country to accomplish the feat, following the United States and Russia.

"In the vast space, I felt proud of our motherland," taikonaut Zhai Zhigang told Chinese president Hu Jintao later over a telephone connecting the spacecraft with a control center in Beijing. Hu peppered the taikonaut, as astronauts are known here, with questions about how it felt to be in space, and thanked him for the success of the mission.

During the spacewalk, in which Zhai floated tethered outside the spacecraft, the taikonaut performed some tests on lubricants, but the event seemed to be as much about public relations as science.

The 41-year-old Zhai grew up poor, supported by a mother who sold sunflower seeds at the market -- a biography that for many encapsulates the rags-to-riches story of the Chinese nation.

Chinese media boasted that the $4.4-million spacesuit he wore outside the craft was entirely made in China, while two other crew members on the mission wore Russian suits. The spacewalk was the highlight of Shenzhou 7's 68-hour mission and took place late this afternoon Beijing time, a convenient moment for people to watch.

Many gathered around large screens, at times cheering proudly, 'Jia you!' -- literally "add oil" -- the same cheer used at the last month's Olympics and other sporting events.

"This shows how well-developed China is in its high technology," said Yang Chang, 32, a trader watching on a long-screen television inside a noodle shop. Yang said he has been losing sleep, having followed the mission on live television since Thursday night, when the spacecraft was launched in the Gobi Desert.

Cao Qian, 22, a recent university graduate with a degree in electronics and information technology, said he hoped the spacewalk would bolster the sciences in China.

"We have a big population. Our scientists are more into theory than practice. We are still behind many other countries -- the United States, Japan, much of Europe. It will be hard for us to catch up," said Cao, who was watching in the same noodle shop.

China is a latecomer to space exploration compared with Russia and the United States. Mao Tse-tung himself is reported to have complained in 1957 that his country couldn't launch a potato into space, much less a rocket.

The launch marked the third time China has sent a man into space. China is hoping that the spacewalk will lead to the development of a permanent space station by 2020.

barbara.demick@latimes.com