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On Sept. 25, 2008, China's space program launched its third human spaceflight mission,Shenzhou 7.

Three astronautsblasted off in the Shenzhou spacecrafton a Long March 2F rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. They spent three days in orbit and conducted the first ever spacewalk for theChinese space program.

The Shenzhou 7 crew also deployed a mini satellite called Banxing, which was used to take photos and videos of the spacecraft.

A Chinese astronaut waves a Chinese flag during the country's first spacewalk on the Shenzhou 7 mission, China's third human spaceflight, which launched on Sept. 25, 2008.(Image credit: China Manned Spaceflight Engineering Office)

Why it mattered

TheShenzhou 7 mission lasted just three daysin space, but it marked a giant leap forward for the China's human spaceflight program.

Three astronauts - commander Zhai Zhigang, Liu Boming and Jing Haipeng - were the first three-person crew to fly in space for China's space program. They spent 68 hours and 27 minutes in space during a mission that ran from Sept. 25 to Sept. 28 in 2008. All three of the astronauts were 42 years old at the time.

Chinese astronaut Zhai Zhigang waves from outside his Shenzhou 7 spacecraft September 27, 2008. He became his country's first spacewalker.(Image credit: China National Space Administration)

It was Zhai Zhigang,a fighter pilot turned space traveler, who performed the first spacewalk for China. He wore the country's then-new $15 million (100 million yuan) Feitian spacesuit (its name means Sea Hawk) and waved a Chinese flag during the extravehicular activity,which lasted about 20 minutesand was designed to prove out the spacesuit, a new airlock system from Shenzhou 7's orbital module and other technologies.

The spacewalk, as well as the launch and landing of Shenzhou 7, was broadcast live on television in another first for China's space program.

An artist's illustration of Chinese astronauts spacewalking outside their Shenzhou spacecraft. Future Shenzhou missions will feature spacewalks ahead of orbital rendezvous and docking demonstrations.(Image credit: China National Space Administration)

"As compared with the Shenzhou V andShenzhou VI manned space flight, the Shenzhou VII manned space flight made breakthrough in a series of key technologies, including the design technology for integrated airlock & living module, the design technology for extravehicular activity procedure, the design technology for relay satellite data terminal system, the design technology for in-orbit test, the localization & application technology for spaceflight products, the design 7 application technology for 3-person carrying capacity of manned spaceship, and the design technology for release of concomitant satellite," the China Manned Spaceflight Engineering Officewrote in a mission overview.

China's then premiere Wen Jiabao called Shenzhou 7 "a victory of the Chinese space and technological fieldand amonumental achievement in the socialist causes," according to China's state run Xinhua news agency.

The Shenzhou 7 crew landed in Inner Mongolia on Sept. 28 to wrap up their historic mission. The mission set the stage for more ambitious flights to follow, including docking missions and flights to smallTiangong space labsthat ultimately led to the construction of China'sTiangong space stationin orbit today.

Want more space history? Check out ourfull On This Day In Space Story archiveand watch ourOn This Day In Space videos on YouTube.

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Hanneke Weitering

Contributing expert

Hanneke Weitering is a multimedia journalist in the Pacific Northwest reporting on the future of aviation at FutureFlight.aero and Aviation International News and was previously the Editor for Spaceflight and Astronomy news here at Space.com. As an editor with over 10 years of experience in science journalism she has previously written for Scholastic Classroom Magazines, MedPage Today and The Joint Institute for Computational Sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. After studying physics at the University of Tennessee in her hometown of Knoxville, she earned her graduate degree in Science, Health and Environmental Reporting (SHERP) from New York University. Hanneke joined the Space.com team in 2016 as a staff writer and producer, covering topics including spaceflight and astronomy. She currently lives in Seattle, home of the Space Needle, with her cat and two snakes. In her spare time, Hanneke enjoys exploring the Rocky Mountains, basking in nature and looking for dark skies to gaze at the cosmos.

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