BEIJING, Dec. 22 (Xinhua) — The following is a summary of published science and technology news of China:

SPACEWALK

The Shenzhou-17 crew members on board China’s orbiting space station completed their first spacewalk at 9:35 p.m. (Beijing Time) on Thursday, according to the China Manned Space Agency.

Tang Hongbo, Tang Shengjie and Jiang Xinlin worked seven-and-a-half hours to complete set tasks such as a Tianhe core module solar wing repair test, with the assistance of a ground team and the space station’s robotic arm.

ROCKET FOR SPACE LAUNCH

The Long March-7 Y8 carrier rocket, tasked with sending China’s space station cargo craft Tianzhou-7 into orbit, was transported to the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site in the southern province of Hainan on Thursday.

The rocket will undergo assembly and testing together with Tianzhou-7, which arrived earlier, the China Manned Space Agency said.

MA60 FIREFIGHTING AIRCRAFT

China’s independently-developed MA60 firefighting aircraft, a new member of the Modern Ark multipurpose aircraft family, is progressing forward on its airworthiness certification process, according to the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC).

As an aircraft model tailored to serve emergency rescue missions, MA60 successfully completed a key test flight, which consisted of hedgehopping and dropping six tonnes of water, said the AVIC, China’s leading aircraft manufacturer.