On June 20, 2013, a historic space lecture made its debut in an auditorium at RDFZ in Beijing, attended by 330 primary and middle school students, including children from migrant workers' families, of ethnic minorities and from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. Also in the class were more than 60 million students and teachers from about 80,000 middle schools across the country. 

The lecturer was female astronaut Wang Yaping, a crew member of China’s Shenzhou-10 spacecraft, 300 kilometers above the Earth. And the huge audiences were students on the Earth. The teacher aboard the space module and the largest-sized class were linked together through a live video feed system. During the space class, Wang Yaping demonstrated what happens in weightlessness, and explained how surface tension affects liquids in that state. As a result, students gained a deeper understanding of basic physical concepts such as mass, weight and Newton’s Laws of Motion. The 40-minute space lecture would be expected to play an important role in fostering young people's interest in sciences and exploring space.

The lesson, which was broadcast live by CCTV, lasted from 10:04 AM to 10:55 AM Beijing time.

RDFZ was chosen as the ground classroom because the advanced school has been exploring and conducting distance teaching programs ever since 1998, accumulating a wealth of advisable experiences.　

  Two physics teachers for the ground class today are Mi Qi from RDFZ and Shi Yi from Beijing 101 High School.

  RDFZ students, although having learned about those laws of physics and weightless condition in classes before, are very excited to be able to see what really happens in the thrilling class instead of imagining what would happen. More than 60 million students and teachers from about 80,000 middle schools across the country also watch the live broadcast on TV.

 A special lecture begins on Thursday morning, given by a teacher aboard a space module about 340 km above the Earth, the first such attempt by Chinese. Also excited are teachers, looking forward to the special moment.

  Astronaut Wang Yaping teaches a class from space to the High School Affiliated to Renmin University of China in Beijing on Thursday. "Hello, everyone. I am Wang Yaping. I will give the lecture today," she said, smiling towards the camera, on board of the space module Tiangong-1.  The other two astronauts are her teaching assistant and cameraman.  The major section of the class is about weight.

  During the interactive exchanges with students back on the Earth, Chinese astronauts aboard the Tiangong-1 orbiter also answer questions related to water use in spacecraft, space debris protection measures, ways to deal with gravity-free environment as well as space views. What appears to excite students most are the experiments with water. Wang Yaping makes a water film with a water bag and a metal ring. She explains to students that the surface tension of water magnifies in space due to zero gravity. Then she makes the second water film and pours water onto it. The water film turns into a water ball.

  At the end the class the three crew members express their wishes for a better future. Nie Haisheng says, “It is my sincere hope that you will work hard to learn more knowledge, bring glory to our motherland.” Zhang Xiaoguang says, “There is no end to explorations to the space. Let us make joint efforts to probe into the mysteries of the universe.” “I wish we will bear our space dream forever in mind,” adds Wang Yaping.