Shenzhou program

Chinese astronauts edged into space on Aug. 19 to add the finishing touches to a robotic arm on the Tiangong space station.

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The foray, the second spacewalk in two months and relayed on state television, is part of China's heavily promoted space programme which has already seen the nation land a rover on Mars and send probes to the moon.

Two astronauts conducted China's first tandem spacewalk on July 4, working on the outside of their nation's new Tiangong station in orbit around Earth.

Three Chinese astronauts blasted off in June, docking at the space station where they are to remain for three months in China's longest crewed mission to date.

Under bright-blue morning skies, China launched its first crewed space mission in five years on June 17, sending three science-minded military pilots rocketing to a new orbiting station they're expected to reach around midafternoon.

China's Tiangong-1 space lab will likely fall to Earth between March 30 and April 2, according to the latest prediction by the European Space Agency's (ESA) Space Debris Office in Darmstadt, Germany.

This window is "highly variable," not ironclad, Space Debris Office representatives stressed in the updated forecast, which was issued yesterday (March 21).