A space station has replaced a lecture hall for Professor Gui Haichao, who joined Commander Jing Haipeng and Engineer Zhu Yangzhu on board the Shenzhou-16 spacecraft last week on its way to the Tiangong Space Station.
An academic from Beihang University, Gui Haichao becomes China’s first civilian astronaut — as previous Chinese astronauts have all been members of the People’s Liberation Army — and will operate payloads for space experiments.
Success Story
“It’s a complete success,” said Huang Weifen, Astronaut System Chief Designer. “As you saw, the astronauts were very calm and seemed at ease. They will stay in orbit for five months and go through two times of rotation and work handover. They will swap places with the Shenzhou-15 crew and welcome the Shenzhou-17 crew.”
Huang Weifen also said the crew would carry out a spacewalk, the long-term maintenance, operation and management of the largest complex composed of three modules and three spacecraft, many space science experiments and tests as well as deliver space lectures.
Professor Quentin Parker, Director of The Laboratory for Space Research at The University of Hong Kong Faculty of Science, said when interviewed by Al Jazeera English, the reason why there’s a civilian on board is that a civilian is a scientist, an academic.
“You need somebody with the skill and experience and the knowledge of how to operate and maintain, you know, delicate equipment and that can’t be done with people usually from a military background,” said Parker.
Parker continued addressing the issue of civilians in space:
“The space station is basically a huge laboratory,” he went on, “and it’s a laboratory that’s going to be increasingly filled with a variety of experiments and technologies from around the world.”
In addition, China plans to launch a crewed mission to the moon by 2030 and expand its space station.
National Pride
“Part of it is national pride, of course, and the fact that you can demonstrate such incredible capacity as a nation-state to put a human being on the moon — nobody’s done that for more than 60 years. And so going back to the moon is something that the West and America have been leading with the Artemis program, and now China is getting on board with its own independent missions,” said Parker.
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SOURCE: Al Jazeera English
Featured image: ‘China sends its first civilian into space | Al Jazeera Newsfeed.’ Credit: Al Jazeera English
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