Macao SAR students 'amazed' by live class from China's space station

MACAO - "I was so amazed by the live class given by three astronauts in the space station," said Wong Ging-pui, a senior high school student from the Tong Nam Middle School in China's Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR).

Wong was among the around 170 primary and middle school students in the SAR to attend the first live class from China's space station last Thursday, given by Shenzhou-13 crew members Zhai Zhigang, Wang Yaping and Ye Guangfu to students on Earth.

"Can you astronauts watch television programs from around the world?" "Can you surf on the internet in the space station?" "Can we send you emails?" Wong raised a series of questions via video link to the astronauts on behalf of Macao students.

When asked why he raised the questions, Wong said he was very curious whether astronauts kill time in space in the same ways as people normally do on Earth.

During the about one-hour class, students learned about the living and working environment of the space station and watched experiments related to cell growth, human body movement and liquid surface tension in the weightless environment.

"I learned a lot about the space as we rarely touch the topic at school," Wong said. "The physics phenomena are also very interesting."

Woo Ka-jyut, a student from the Santa Rosa de Lima Secondary School, said she was most interested in the water "ball" experiment. "I didn't know bubbles could stay inside water 'balls' in space."

Woo said she has had a dream of becoming an astronaut ever since childhood. "China's first astronaut Yang Liwei is my idol," she added.

After hearing about the negative impacts of the space environment on human bodies, Wong expressed his admiration for the astronauts. "Their devotion is worth learning by us all."

Last Thursday, over 10,000 students across Macao watched the live broadcast of the lecture on television or via the internet at school.

Vassort Sanches Eloise, a student of the Zheng Guanying Official School, said the astronauts are "really great" people because they have to stay in space for six months and face high risks.

The three Chinese astronauts entered space aboard the Shenzhou-13 spaceship, and entered China's space station on Oct 16, embarking on the country's longest-ever crewed space station construction mission.