<p>Two Chinese astronauts went on a spacewalk Saturday from a new space station that is due to be completed later this year.</p>.<p>Cai Xuzhe and Chen Dong installed pumps, a handle to open the hatch door from outside in an emergency, and a foot-stop to fix an astronaut's feet to a robotic arm, state media said.</p>.<p>China is building its own space station after being excluded by the US from the International Space Station because its military runs the country's space program. American officials see a host of strategic challenges from China's space ambitions, in an echo of the US-Soviet rivalry that prompted the race to the moon in the 1960s.</p>.<p>The latest spacewalk was the second during a six-month mission that will oversee the completion of the space station. The first of two laboratories, a 23-ton module, was added to the station in July and the other is to be sent up later this year.</p>.<p>The third member of the crew, Liu Yang, supported the other two from inside during the spacewalk. Liu and Chen conducted the first spacewalk about two weeks ago.</p>.<p>They will be joined by three more astronauts near the end of their mission in what will be the first time the station has six people on board.</p>.<p>China became the third nation to send a person into space in 2003, following the former Soviet Union and the United States. It has sent rovers to the moon and Mars and brought lunar samples back to Earth.</p>
<p>Two Chinese astronauts went on a spacewalk Saturday from a new space station that is due to be completed later this year.</p>.<p>Cai Xuzhe and Chen Dong installed pumps, a handle to open the hatch door from outside in an emergency, and a foot-stop to fix an astronaut's feet to a robotic arm, state media said.</p>.<p>China is building its own space station after being excluded by the US from the International Space Station because its military runs the country's space program. American officials see a host of strategic challenges from China's space ambitions, in an echo of the US-Soviet rivalry that prompted the race to the moon in the 1960s.</p>.<p>The latest spacewalk was the second during a six-month mission that will oversee the completion of the space station. The first of two laboratories, a 23-ton module, was added to the station in July and the other is to be sent up later this year.</p>.<p>The third member of the crew, Liu Yang, supported the other two from inside during the spacewalk. Liu and Chen conducted the first spacewalk about two weeks ago.</p>.<p>They will be joined by three more astronauts near the end of their mission in what will be the first time the station has six people on board.</p>.<p>China became the third nation to send a person into space in 2003, following the former Soviet Union and the United States. It has sent rovers to the moon and Mars and brought lunar samples back to Earth.</p>