we're back with tonight's outer circle where we reach out to our sources around the world. tonight we go to china the government is eager to flex its muscles in space. the time an astronaut teaches a physics lesson from a space model. i asked why this was such a big idea for china? >> reporter: another first in space, teaching 66 million chinese school children in their classrooms about gravity, about surface tension of water and space and gyroscopics in space, how you weigh things in space. all designed to energize these young children to think about space, think about science in the future and encourage the people in china to support this costly space mission. this is just one of many such china planning a bigger space station in the future, still lagging behind the occupation, lagging behind russia in their space developments and, of course, wanting to catch up.