Chinese astronauts are seen working in the Shenzhou VI spacecraft yesterday. Ground control said that all flight operations go smoothly. -Xinhua

Chinese astronauts Fei Junlong and Nie Haisheng, having got accustomed to conditions in space, began to enjoy their life aboard the Shenzhou VI spacecraft.

At 9:35am on Wednesday, Fei toying with his floating pen and looking out of the window occasionally at the Earth below was seen on the big screen in the Beijing Aerospace Command and Control Center.

The screen also displayed Fei opening a bag to show people the contents inside.

At 2:36pm, they took out a video camera to shoot the Earth beneath them.

The screen later show both men in good condition, with Fei shaving.

At 4:30pm, Fei did something that captured the attention of the people in the command and control center. He turned a forward somersault.

He did three more afterward as Nie took pictures of him, each one more skillful than the previous one. The four somersaults took him about three minutes.

As the spacecraft was traveling at an speed of 7.8 kilometers per second, he covered around 351 kilometers in each somersault.

The Shenzhou VI spacecraft underwent its first orbit maintenance operation early yesterday morning to restore the vessel to its original trajectory.

The operation began at 5:56am Beijing time yesterday during the spacecraft's 30th circle flight around the Earth and successfully restored the slightly deviated vessel to its original trajectory a couple of seconds later, according to Beijing Aerospace Command and Control Center.

The spacecraft, which blasted off on Wednesday morning with two astronauts onboard, had slightly deviated from its designed orbit and is moving a little closer to the Earth due to gravity.

Shenzhou VI, China's second manned space flight, is designed to travel in a circular orbit 343 kilometers above the Earth after the orbit shift from an elliptical orbit in its fifth circle around the Earth.

Experts said the maintenance is a normal technical operation and similar tasks are possible in the future in accordance with the spacecraft's orbiting situations.

Shenzhou VI is expected to travel in space for up to five days, exceeding the time spent in space during China's first manned flight in 2003.