The China Science and Technology Museum in Beijing is reaching for the stars, literally, with its latest project: by helping to educate young students about China's space station.

The museum announced on Monday the opening of the China Space Station Scientific Innovation Experience Base inside its main building and held a class with the China Manned Space agency and hundreds of students from the capital.

The class began with a video of the three Chinese astronauts, or taikonauts, currently in space, sending their congratulations for the opening of the base. 

They also gave the students three assignments: Liu Boming asked them to research how the space environment can affect lifeforms; his colleague Tang Hongbo tasked them with imagining what space stations will look like in 2049; and Nie Haisheng had them to try packaging their own space food.

While the three taikonauts were only beamed in to the event via video, China's first taikonaut Yang Liwei was on hand to exchange presents with student representatives during the opening ceremony.

The class was live-streamed to 11 other sci-tech museums and hundreds of schools across China with more than two million online views, according to the China Association of Science and Technology.