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Taikonaut Tai Chi Foot Loops

Check out these beautiful videos of Chinese astronauts (taikonauts!) performing ancient Tai Chi movements while in the Tiangong space station high above the Earth!

Naturally, the thing that really interests me in these videos are - foot loops! Yes, that's right, the little loops that the taikonauts anchor themselves with. Who originally had that idea? It's a fairly low-tech solution to the problem.

The earliest reference that I know about is this one from The Power Planet, a 1931 story by science fiction writer Murray Leinster, published by Amazing Stories in 1931:

Jimmy Cardigan and Harlowe, staring through the darkside port, had their feet in the foot-loops which proved their usefulness in the first rocket ever to coast with its power off.
(Read more about foot loops)

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