China finally revealed that two of its astronauts did a secretive "space walk" on the Tiangong space station.
According to Fox News, this is their second extravehicular operation in the last three months. They report that this was a secretive mission outside the normal international bounds within which these things are traditionally done.
The group is known as the Shenzhou 15 crew, and two crew members exited the space station to perform "scheduled tasks," according to Chinese media reporting. Another crew member remained in the cabin to help, and there was also a member of ground support assisting with this mission, according to CMSA.
The announcement of this mission was only made after it was completed, which breaks away from the norms of how these space missions tend to go. Space News reports that this raises concerns about why the Chinese revealed what they were up to after it was done.
Rick Fisher, a senior fellow with the International Assessment and Strategy Center, spoke with Fox News Digital and said:
"For the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), less transparency means more power, the power to deter, disinform and disarm enemies, reflecting ancient Chinese strategic values," and "Furthermore, the CCP in all areas, not just outer space, seeks the status of hegemon, meaning that it cannot be accountable to any non-CCP-created rule or value system, so the CCP has no problem not warning other nations about its space activities."
The CMSA offered only a vague announcement last month about this potential activity at the space station. However, they didn't give all the details they would typically provide before such a mission occurred.
Mission commander Fei Junlong led the mission on February 9, 2023.
Fox News reports that the 3-man crew has been at the International Space Station since November 29th. This means they have spent 95 days in orbit as of this writing.
Activities at the International Space Station have again taken on some geo-political significance. This was particularly heightened when Russia announced that it intended to pull its members from the International Space Station, given the tensions between itself and the United States over the politics of the Russia-Ukraine war.
As this is happening, there are also signs of closer ties between Russia and China, both in terms of space cooperation and geo-political relationships in general day-to-day.
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