Shenzhou XIII crew to give 2nd lecture from space

Crew members of China's Shenzhou XIII mission will soon give their second open lecture from the orbiting Tiangong space station to students around the world, according to the China Manned Space Agency.

The agency said in a statement on Tuesday that the lecture will take place in the coming days and will be livestreamed worldwide. The astronauts will carefully plan for the event and will cover topics solicited from the public, it noted.

The Shenzhou XIII mission crew — Major General Zhai Zhigang, Senior Colonel Wang Yaping and Senior Colonel Ye Guangfu — conducted their first open lecture in December from the Tiangong station while traveling in an orbit about 400 kilometers above the ground.

They showed viewers how they live and work inside the station, which consists of a core module, a spacecraft with human-rating certification and two robotic cargo spaceships.

The astronauts carried out experiments to display interesting physical phenomena in space, such as "disappearing buoyancy" and a "water ball". They answered questions from students before ending the livestream.

Millions of primary and middle school students across China watched the 60-minute televised event hosted by the China Manned Space Agency, the Ministry of Education and other government departments.

Groups of invited students in Beijing, Nanning in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, Wenchuan in Sichuan province, and the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions participated in video chats with the crew during the lecture.

It was the first lecture of the Tiangong (Heavenly Palace) Class series, China's first extraterrestrial lecture series that aims to popularize space science.