In a 51 minute class from space, Chinese astronauts did their best to educate the 330-odd grade students about weightlessness - from striking Kung fu poses to playing with blobs of water, they did it all.

This lecture, conducted live from China's orbiting space station, was an attempt to popularize space programs and studies in the new, upcoming generation.

Astronaut Wang Yaping happily responded to the questions put forth by the kids, who gathered at the Beijing auditorium, on topics ranging from staying fit, to living in space.

To make the lecture more interactive and entertaining, Nie Haisheng, a fellow astronaut sat in a cross-legged lotus position, familiar to all fans of Chinese martial arts films.

"In space, we're all kung fu masters," Wang said.

The astronauts also demonstrated how water bubbles look in space, without any gravity to pull them down.

Around 60 million students, some of whom were watching the live TV broadcast in their classroom, got to be a part in this one-of-a-kind educational initiative from space.

 "The spirit of science among youth is an important drive for the progress of mankind," designer-in-chief of China's manned space program, Zhou Jianping, explained.

Being the third nation after Russia and US, China launched its first crew mission to space in the year 2003, and has now entered its second decade successfully.

China's new future space station is expected to weigh around 60 tons, and will be a bit smaller than NASA's skylab from the 1970s. This new space station, named Tiangong 2, will be much larger than the current station, and is expected to be ready within seven years.