EVARetired🇨🇳
Feitian EVA Suit (1st Generation)
Designation: Feitian (飞天) Gen 1
The suit Zhai Zhigang wore waving a Chinese flag on China's first spacewalk — making China the third nation to achieve EVA.
About This Suit
The Feitian ('Flying Apsara' / 'Celestial Being,' named by President Hu Jintao in July 2006 after the flying apsara figures in Dunhuang cave art) was China's first EVA suit. Developed by CASIC's Aerospace Life-Support Institute, the Feitian 1st generation was visually and structurally influenced by the Russian Orlan-M (China had access to technical documentation and borrowed an Orlan-M as backup for Shenzhou 7). The suit used a semi-rigid construction with a hard upper torso and rear-entry hatch, and cost approximately RMB 30 million (~$4.4M USD) per unit. Color-coded suits were used during EVA: one taikonaut wore blue, the other red, for visual identification from cameras. On September 27, 2008, Zhai Zhigang became the first Chinese person to walk in space, waving a small Chinese flag — a moment that made China the third nation after the USSR and USA to achieve EVA.
Key Features
- 1Semi-rigid construction: hard upper torso + flexible limbs (Orlan-M influence)
- 2Rear-entry through integrated backpack hatch
- 3Color-coded suits (blue/red) for taikonaut identification during EVA
- 4~RMB 30 million (~$4.4M USD) per unit
- 55-EVA reusability per unit (extended to 15+ in Gen 2)
- 6Named 'Feitian' after Dunhuang cave art flying apsaras — by presidential decree
Historic Missions
2008
Shenzhou 7
Zhai Zhigang — first Chinese spacewalk; waved Chinese flag outside capsule Sept 27, 2008; Liu Boming wore borrowed Russian Orlan-M as backup
👨🚀 Zhai Zhigang, Liu Boming
2016
Tiangong-2 EVAs
Chen Dong and Jing Haipeng performed EVA during Shenzhou 11 docked mission
Engineering & Research Highlights
- ◆Demonstrated China's indigenous ability to manufacture a semi-rigid EVA suit from scratch
- ◆Color-coding protocol for EVA crew identification became standard for Feitian operations