Chinese astronaut to deliver first space lecture

A special lecture will begin at about 10:00 a.m. Beijing time Thursday morning, given by a teacher aboard China's space module Tiangong-1 to students on Earth.

Female astronaut Wang Yaping, one of the three crew members of Shenzhou-10 spacecraft, will give the lecture to about 330 primary and middle school students in Beijing, through a live video feed system.

More than 60 million students and teachers at about 80,000 middle schools across the country will watch the live broadcast on TV.

Wang will teach about motion in a microgravity environment, the surface tension of liquid, and help students understand the concepts of weight and mass and Newton's Laws.

The world's first teacher in space was Christa McAuliffe, a 37-year-old middle school teacher from the United States, but the Space Shuttle Challenger disintegrated after 73 seconds in flight on Jan. 28, 1986. McAuliffe and her other six crewmates were killed.

Barbara Morgan, McAuliffe's backup in that mission who became an astronaut later, completed the teaching lesson in space in 2007, when she was sent to the International Space Station with Space Shuttle Endeavor. Via a video feed, she showed students how to exercise and drink water in space.