Shenzhou XVI astronauts give lecture to millions of students

Thousands of invited students in Beijing, the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, and Zhejiang, Anhui and Shaanxi provinces took part in the lecture at "ground class venues".

The main ground venue was a gymnasium inside Beihang University in Beijing, formerly called Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Gui taught spacecraft systems at the university's School of Astronautics before he was picked by the Astronaut Center of China for the Shenzhou XVI flight

More than 2,400 teachers and students from the university and several primary and middle schools attended the gymnasium venue.

The activity marked the fourth lecture of the Tiangong Class series, China's first extraterrestrial lecture series that aims to popularize space science. It was also the first time the Shenzhou XVI crew has given a lecture.

The Shenzhou XVI trio arrived at the Chinese space station on May 30 to take over the orbital outpost from their Shenzhou XV peers who had stayed there for six months.

Their journey is the maiden flight of China's third generation of astronauts, which includes Zhu and Gui. It is also the first time a Chinese civilian has traveled to space, with Gui the nation's first nonmilitary astronaut.

As of Thursday afternoon, Jing's team had worked in orbit 114 days in orbit and were in good condition. They are scheduled to live inside the space station for around five months and return to Earth in November, according to the China Manned Space Agency.

So far, Chinese astronauts have conducted five space-based science lectures for students.