The Chinese report that its taikonaut (or, Chinese astronaut) Zhai Zhigange, the commander for the Shenzhou VII spacecraft, became the first Chinese person to walk in space.

A camera captured his emergence from the orbital module of the spacecraft.

United Press International (UPI) reports him first saying upon exit of the spacecraft, "I feel well. I am here greeting the Chinese people and people of the whole world." [UPI: “Chinese astronaut walks in space”]

Soon, thereafter, a second astronaut, Liu Boming, handed Zhai the flag of the People’s Republic of China, which he waved in front of the camera.

Images of the historic Chinese event are found on the XinhuaNet.com website “China completes first spacewalk.”

After the spacewalk was completed, Chinese president Hu Jintao talked with the three space travelers.

He stated, “Your country and your fellow citizens thank you for your devotion to the space program." [XinhuaNet.com: “President Hu says spacewalk a major breakthrough”]

Video of the exciting event, coordinated by the China National Space Administration (CNSA), is found on page two.

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The video of the complete event is found at “China's first spacewalk.”

It is provided by China’s television station CCTV (China Central Television).

A commentator of the event reported that this is the 298th spacewalk of humans in space.

This includes fourteen Moon walks by twelve U.S. astronauts between the late 1960s and early 1970s.

The first EVA, or spacewalk, was conducted by the former Soviet Union when its cosmonaut Alexey Leonov emerged from his Voskhod 2 spacecraft on March 18, 1965. His spacewalk lasted approximately 24 minutes.

The second spacewalk was conducted by NASA astronaut Edward White while outside his Gemini 4 spacecraft, on June 3, 1965. White's EVA took about 20 minutes.

The longest spacewalk to date was 8 hours, 56 minutes in duration. It was performed by NASA astronaut Susan J. Helms on March 11, 2001.

Congratulations to the Chinese for this major milestone in their manned space program!