China Daily Global Edition (USA)
Space agency to pick those with the right stuff
The nation is planning its most ambitious project yet; a manned facility that will act as a base for experiments and further exploration, as Zhao Lei reports.
China will begin its selection process this year for the next generation of astronauts who will train to work on the country’s planned space station, a senior official said.
Yang Liwei, deputy director of the China Manned Space Agency and the first Chinese astronaut in space, said the selection work will begin soon and that Chinese scientists and engineers will be eligible to apply.
“We plan to select suitable candidates from space industry companies, research entities and universities and train them into engineers and payload specialists capable of working on the space station,” he said during an open day at Beijing’s Astronaut Center of China.
“Those who want to apply for an engineer’s post will need a master’s degree, while candidates for payload specialists will need a doctoral degree,” he said. “They will also have at least three years of work experience.”
Yang did not discuss other criteria for the new generation of astronauts, such as their physical and psychological conditions.
China is developing and building parts of a manned space station and plans to start assembling it in space starting in 2020. The station is scheduled to become fully operational around 2022, according to Yang’s agency.
As the nation’s largest asset in the universe, the station will have three parts — the core module attached to two space labs, each weighing about 20 metric tons — and will be in service for at least 10 years, the agency has said.
China began to select its first generation of astronauts in 1995 and picked 14 from more than 1,500 experienced PLA Air Force aviators. In 2009, selection for the second-generation of astronauts, also from Air Force pilots, was launched. Seven passed all tests and were recruited.
In selecting the first two groups, candidates had to be age 25 to 35, have a height ranging from 160 to 172 centimeters, a weight between 55 and 70 kilograms, and have at least 600 hours of aircraft flight.
Five astronauts in the first generation retired in March 2014 because they were no longer suitable for spaceflight, so there now are 16 astronauts in active service.
In addition to its own spacemen and women, China also is willing to help other nations select and train astronauts and will gladly cooperate with them in its space station program, Yang said.
In an earlier interview, he said more than 10 countries, mostly among developing nations, have asked for China’s assistance in selecting and training astronauts. They hope to prepare astronauts for prospective joint missions to China’s planned space station, he said.
Yang said China welcomes other parties to join the space station program for mutual benefit and the peaceful use of outer space.
In most suburbs of Beijing, the word “skyrocket” is usually used to describe the soaring price of property that has resulted from China’s rapid urbanization and the thriving real estate market.
However, for 16 people in an inconspicuous compound on the northwestern outskirts of the city the adjective is almost always used literally.
They are the only people in a population of 1.3 billion who are active, qualified astronauts. At present, they are training for one of the most spectacular endeavors of the coming decade: building and operating China’s first space station. Construction will begin in 2020, and the facility, which will be designed to last at least 10 years, will come into service two years later. Each group of astronauts will occupy it for three to six months at a time.
“Missions to the space station will last much longer than previous assignments. The station’s systems will be more advanced and sophisticated than those on the Shenzhou series of spacecraft and the Tiangong space laboratories, so the astronauts will require far greater knowledge, ability and skill,” said Fei Junlong, who was sent into space aboard Shenzhou VI in 2005.
“We astronauts must continue to improve our abilities and learn how to operate and maintain the equipment that will be used on the space station,” he told reporters during an open house held at the Astronaut Center of China in northwestern Beijing to mark the 20th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Liberation Army Astronaut Group.
Nie Haisheng, Fei’s partner on the Shenzhou VI mission, explained that China’s astronauts now have a wider range of training methods designed to help them become familiar with the advanced equipment that will be used on the space station.
According to the plan of action, a Long March 5B heavy-lift rocket, which is currently under development, will put the station’s core module into orbit in 2020. That will be followed by at least four manned missions to carry astronauts into space to assemble the station. In common with previous space missions, the government has not released any figures related to the cost of the project.
If the United States-led International Space Station is retired as planned in 2024, the new, as yet unnamed, Chinese facility will become the only permanent space station.
Although China has trained 21 astronauts over two generations, only 11 of them have taken part in the nation’s six manned space missions. The third batch of trainees will be chosen this year.
Candidates for the space station mission will be chosen according to their performance in training and through expert assessment, so no one yet knows who will be the first to board the station.
“We are lucky to be in this great ‘New Era’. We must race against time to prepare for the upcoming space station mission,” said Liu Boming, who took part in the Shenzhou VII mission in 2008.
A source of pride
In 1992, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China approved a road map for the country’s manned space program drawn up by a number of eminent scientists.
Three years later, the Central Military Commission decided that the astronauts should be chosen from veteran pilots in the PLA Air Force who had at least 600 flight hours in fighter jets or attack aircraft.
More than 1,500 pilots applied, and after several rounds of stringent tests the number was whittled down to 14. In January 1998, they became the founding members of the PLA Astronaut Group, and in 2010, they were joined by seven new astronauts who were also experienced Air Force pilots.
On October 15, 2003, China carried out its first manned space mission, sending Yang Liwei on a 21hour series of Earth orbits in Shenzhou V.
During his 600,000-kilometer expedition, 343 km above the planet, the then-38-year-old Yang simultaneously displayed the Chinese and UN flags to hundreds of millions of Chinese who were witnessing his feat on television, and said in both Chinese and English, “Make use of outer space peacefully and for the benefit of all humankind.”
Now a major general and bearing the honorary title of “Space Hero”, Yang is deputy director of the China Manned Space Agency.
In the 14 years since Yang’s momentous journey, China has evolved from a second-tier player in the global space race into a great power.
In 2003, the country conducted just seven space missions, while Russia undertook 21 and the United States made 23; by comparison, this year, China will conduct at least 40 unmanned missions in an ambitious schedule that is likely to outnumber those of both the US and Russia.
Moreover, since 2003, China’s six manned spaceflights have totaled 68 days and orbited Earth 1,089 times, while the nation’s astronauts have travelled more than 46 million km in space and conducted more than 100 experiments.
Chinese astronauts have also undertaken extravehicular activity, conducted several extended missions inside the Tiangong I and II space labs, and delivered a 40-minute lecture from space that was watched by more than 60 million students at about 80,000 schools.
Those accomplishments have become a source of pride and growing confidence in the nation, in addition to sparking patriotic sentiments in Chinese communities across the world.
Yang recalled that during a visit to New York in 2004, an 80-something Chinese-American held his hands and tearfully told him that for overseas Chinese, the nation’s achievements in space reflected the fact that “our motherland has risen”, which gave them renewed courage and strength.
In 2013, when Liu Yang, the first Chinese woman in space, attended a seminar at a middle school in Beijing, a student told her that he had been inspired by her story and wanted to become an astronaut.
He also gave Liu a photo that had been taken by his grandmother, a retired professor at the prestigious Beihang University in Beijing, at a ceremony held at the university several months before. On the back of the photo, the elderly women had written, “We salute those who contribute to our endeavors in space.”
According to statistics provided by the manned space agency, the ratings for TV and radio programs about astronauts broadcast during manned missions are always extremely high, while books about China’s manned space expeditions remain at the top of the best-seller lists for many years.
Perseverance and devotion
Away from the glamour, though, the nation’s astronauts endure countless rounds of training, tests and drills, shedding sweat and owing an enormous debt to their families.
“Once a pilot is admitted to the astronaut team, they must immerse themselves in more than 30 subjects, including physics, astronautics and astronomy. Normally, university courses in each of these subjects last four years, but our astronauts have just one year to complete their studies and they must pass exams about every topic,” said Li Xinke, Party chief at the Astronaut Center of China.
“During training to simulate weightlessness, astronauts wear suits that weigh 160 kilograms and stay underwater for about four hours. They lose an average 2 kg during each training session and after a session they are so exhausted that they are unable to hold chopsticks,” he added.
During centrifuge training, the astronauts endure gravitational acceleration as much as eight times their own weight so they will be able to resist the g-forces during liftoff that severely restrict the ability to breathe.
“In the past 20 years, none of our astronauts has pressed the emergency button to halt the program. They all persisted,” Li said.
The astronauts have also overcome hardships and difficulties during missions.
Yang Liwei recalled being in Shenzhou V atop a Long March 2F rocket ascending toward the sky, when a low-frequency oscillation made his internal organs vibrate violently, inflicting almost unbeara-
ble pain. He said he gritted his teeth and told himself to endure the pain because he was about to realize the nation’s enduring dream of flying in space.
During the Shenzhou VII mission, Zhai Zhigang and Liu Boming spent about 20 hours assembling their extravehicular suits but then discovered they were unable to open the spaceship’s exit hatch. Eventually, they decided to use a tool to force the hatch open despite the obvious safety risk. At the same time, the spacecraft’s computers sounded a warning that there was a fire in the orbital cabin.
“We had no time for discussion. We knew what was in each other’s mind at that very moment: we had to accomplish our mission and wave the Chinese flag in space, even though we realized that there would probably be no return trip for us,” Zhai said.
They discovered that their pessimism had been unfounded; the spacecraft was not damaged when they forced the hatch and the fire alarm was a false alert.
Unforgettable memories
Looking back at these and other experiences, the astronauts said their struggles, sacrifices and persistence were all worthwhile.
Liu Wang, who took part in the 2012 Shenzhou IX/Tiangong I mission, said it was awe-inspiring and unforgettable to observe the Earth and the universe from space.
“I saw the lights of cities on Earth and lightning ripping through the night sky. From our orbit I saw the darkness and emptiness of space and I wondered where the boundary is between the sky and the stars,” he said. “I will never forget those scenes.”
Wang Yaping, the female astronaut who delivered a science lecture to students from the Tiangong I space lab, said she felt humbled by the number of boys and girls who wrote to her upon her return.
“They said my colleagues and I had inspired them to explore the universe and they would try their best to become astronauts,” she said. “I would never have imagined that my teaching could spark so many dreams and aspirations”
In July, President Xi Jinping, who is also chairman of the Central Military Commission, conferred a firstclass military decoration on the PLA Astronaut Group, and also awarded an August 1 Medal, the highest honor given to individual members of the Chinese military, to Jing Haipeng, who has taken part in three missions, including the Shenzhou XI/Tiangong II expedition in late 2016, which lasted 33 days.
Jing was both pleased and modest when he received the medal. “Of course, the honor and glory belong not only to us, but also to tens of thousands of scientists, engineers and workers from more than 3,000 institutes, universities and enterprises who have played a role in the nation’s manned space programs and contributed to sending us into space,” he said.