Experts said the successful mission would pave the way for the construction of China’s first space station and for manned missions to the moon.

Chen Shanguang, director of the China Astronaut Centre, said on CCTV: “The entire manned programme is about quality. From astronaut training to spacesuits and spacecraft, we must have zero flaws. It is not a goal. It is a starting line.”

Wearing his Chinese-made Feitian spacesuit, Colonel Zhai - a 42-year-old fighter pilot - began to open the hatch at about 4.30pm. A stiff latch and hatch delayed his departure from the space module. After struggling for nearly 10 minutes, and with the help of his colleague Colonel Liu Boming , Colonel Zhai emerged from the hatch and into space, waving to the camera.

The third crew member, Jing Haipeng, stayed inside to monitor the spacecraft’s instruments.

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Despite a fire hazard warning on the instrument panel, the crew reacted calmly and proceeded with their assignments. Mission spokesman Wang Zhaoyao said later that the fire alert, which was heard during the live transmission, was a mistake in one of the spacecraft’s sensors.

“To be frank, at that very moment, many of us felt a little bit concerned,” he said.

Colonel Liu also briefly popped his head out of the orbital module to hand a Chinese national flag to Colonel Zhai, who waved it to the camera.

Colonel Zhai then retrieved a test sample attached to the hull of the spacecraft and handed it to Colonel Liu, who remained in the cabin.

Colonel Zhai drifted from one side of the hull to the other, his hands never leaving the handrail. The re-entry procedure, involving the closing and locking of the latch - operations that have proved difficult in previous spacewalks - went smoothly.

The entire spacewalk lasted for 19 minutes, 35 seconds, Xinhua said. President Hu Jintao , who was present at Thursday’s launch of the Shenzhou 7, watched at Beijing’s ground control centre.

“Your success represents a new breakthrough in our manned space programme,” he told the astronauts in an exchange that was also broadcast live on television.

Colonel Zhai replied: “The spacewalk mission has been accomplished smoothly. Please set your mind at ease, Chairman Hu and the people of China. In the vastness of space, I felt proud of our motherland.”

After the spacewalk, the astronauts released a football-sized monitoring satellite to circle the orbiter and send images back to mission control. The Shenzhou 7 is scheduled to return to Earth at about 5.40pm today, said Deng Yibing, of the astronaut training centre.

Caution sets Chinese attempt apart from more casual Soviet and US adventures

China is the first country to perform its maiden spacewalk live on television, thanks to the scientific and technological advances in the past four decades.

But the first Chinese spacewalk has demonstrated much less spontaneity than the first missions carried out by the former Soviet Union and the US astronauts, echoing what some experts said were “Chinese characteristics”.

Colonel Zhai Zhigang , typically for an officer of the People’s Liberation Army, took every step under instructions from ground command.

Throughout the mission, he stayed within a diameter of 50cm of the hatch of the space module and lingered for no more than a second after receiving the order to return.

Even in his conversation with President Hu Jintao later, he seemed to be reading from a script.

Contrary to the near perfection of the first Chinese spacewalk, the first attempts by the Soviet Union and the United States were full of uncertainties.

Russian astronaut Alexei Leonov, the world’s first spacewalker, described his historic endeavour as a monumental but also harrowing experience, according to the Nasa History Office. As soon as Colonel Leonov got out of the spacecraft, he found his spacesuit had become inflated.

He could not move around easily and he could not even reach the camera on his chest.

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When he returned, he violated his orders from mission command and entered the hatch head first, causing him to get stuck midway.

He had to release some of the air in his spacesuit to eventually return to the cabin. When he was out of the spacesuit, he had sweated profusely and found himself almost on the verge of a heart attack.

Edward White, the first American spacewalker, also ignored ground command’s caution and drifted more than 20 metres from the spacecraft.

He also intentionally threw away his heat resistant gloves and the sun visor on his face plate.

And he asked to stay longer in space, saying that his spacewalk was the most comfortable experience of his entire mission.