Shenzhou XV crew set out for Tiangong space station • See more,
European astronauts turn to Chinese to expand horizons and friendships
The crew members of the Shenzhou XV mission, China’s 10th manned spaceflight, set out on their journey to the country’s Tiangong space station on Tuesday night.
A 20-story-tall Long March 2F carrier rocket blasted off on schedule at 11:08 pm from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China’s Gobi Desert and soon placed the Shenzhou XV spacecraft in a lowEarth orbit about 400 kilometers above the ground.
As this was the first time a rocket carrying astronauts was launched in freezing temperatures of nearly minus 20 degrees Celsius, engineers equipped the rocket and its service tower with a host of cold-proof materials.
All of the previous nine crewed flights had been launched between June and October.
Within hours of the launch, the eight-metric-ton spaceship was due to approach and dock with the Tianhe core module of the Tiangong station.
After docking with the core module, the crew members — Major General Fei Junlong, the mission commander, Senior Colonel Deng Qingming and Senior Colonel Zhang Lu — would open a hatch and then float into the Tianhe module to meet their peers from the Shenzhou XIV mission — Senior Colonel Chen Dong, Senior Colonel Liu Yang and Senior Colonel Cai Xuzhe — who have been in space for nearly six months.
In a video which the Shenzhou XIV crew sent to Fei’s team hours before Tuesday’s launch, Chen, Liu and Cai appeared in pullovers which said in Chinese “Old Friends Are Coming” and said that they were very much looking forward to the arrival of the Shenzhou XV crew.
Liu and Cai also said: “We will give you a big hug as soon as we meet”.
The Shenzhou XV marks mission commander Fei’s return to space after 17 years. The 57-year-old was a member of the Shenzhou VI crew in October 2005.
For both Deng, 56, and Zhang, 46, it’s their first journey into space. Deng is the last serving member of China’s first group of astronauts to take part in a spaceflight while Zhang had been the only one in the second generation of astronauts without spaceflight experience prior to the mission.
Their arrival will mark the first time that six Chinese people have been in space at the same time. There have been at most three Chinese astronauts in space at a time.
During the six-month Shenzhou XV mission, Fei’s crew will carry out three to four spacewalks to mount equipment outside the station. Their major tasks will also include unlocking, installing and testing 15 scientific cabinets, conducting more than 40 scientific experiments and technological demonstrations, and carrying out six cargo orbital deployment operations, according to mission officials.
As China broadens its exploration of space at an ever faster pace, many in Europe are hoping for expanded cooperation with China in this new frontier.
With their career paths in mind, many European astronauts have begun learning Chinese, and they are also showing a great interest in Chinese culture.
“Looking up, I see the immensity of the cosmos. Bowing my head, I look at the multitude of the world. The gaze flies, the heart expands, the joy of the senses can reach its peak, and indeed, this is true happiness,” Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti tweeted in mid-October during a stay on the International Space Station, or ISS. She was quoting from Lantingji Xu, a classic of Chinese literature from the 4th century, to describe her feelings in space.
Cristoforetti is a member of the European Space Agency, or ESA, working group, who speaks Chinese very well. She is responsible for liaising with her Chinese counterparts.
Cristoforetti tweeted the verses from Lantingji Xu in Chinese with translations in Italian and English, as well as three photos taken in space of China’s Bohai Bay and the view of China’s capital Beijing. The post quickly went viral.
In fact, her connections with China go beyond space. In 2019, she came to China and gave a lecture at the Beijing Institute of Technology. As the first Italian female astronaut in space, she was looked up to as a role model by the students, especially female ones, who are all future engineers.
“You are building a powerhouse for the future of aerospace engineering,” she said in words of encouragement to them.
Thomas Pesquet is another ESA astronaut who has an affinity with China. One of the most famous European astronauts, he is also a prominent influencer on social media.
The Frenchman speaks six languages, including Chinese. On the eve of the year 2021, he shared his cultural knowledge of the Chinese New Year on Twitter. “The Chinese New Year starts 12 February (in 2021 according to the traditional Chinese calendar) and is celebrated with ‘the dragon’ (in emoji), my favorite mythical creature now.”
In November last year, Pesquet and three other astronauts aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon arrived at the ISS.
Crossing paths
The following day after he and his fellow crew members took off, the Chinese-manned space mission Shenzhou-11 landed. The French astronaut “crossed paths” with two Chinese taikonauts, Jing Haipeng and Chen Dong, who then recorded a short video for the ESA and especially for Pesquet, to greet his departure for the ISS.
When three Chinese taikonauts on the Shenzhou-12 mission joined the Chinese space station, or CSS, in mid-June 2021, Pesquet posted a congratulatory message on the image-hosting website Flicker: “The population of humans in space grew by 43 percent … all human spaceflight is an incredibly impressive achievement, congratulations!” The post included photos of China taken from space.
German Matthias Maurer is also an active ESA participant in SinoEuropean cooperation. He has been learning Chinese for years with the intention of working better with his Chinese counterparts on the Chinese station, he told Xinhua in 2018.
His Chinese name Ma Tian was chosen by himself, and means “heavenly horse”, according to his Chinese teacher.
He and Cristoforetti participated in a sea survival exercise organized by the Astronaut Center of China in 2017, marking the first joint training session involving Chinese and foreign astronauts in China.
Maurer said China has a lot of advantages such as its own rockets, capsules and a space station. “I want to participate in both European and non-European experiments there. Also (to) build a live video connection so that the European public can talk with the European astronauts in the CSS and see inside,” Maurer said.
Training and living with 16 other Chinese astronauts, he felt like “being part of a family”.
“I would expect to do any type of work and take the same responsibility as any Chinese astronaut in CSS,” he said, noting that the cooperation is a “win-win”.
Maurer is a believer in the strength of cooperation for the future of space activities. “Once we look beyond Earth orbit to the moon or Mars, we need all the partners we can find on this planet … the more we have in the ‘family’, the better we will become,” he once said.