China will send a civilian astronaut into space for the first time on Tuesday as part of a mission to the Tiangong station, the country’s Human Space Agency said. His name is Gui Haichao and he is 34 years old.
“Payload specialist Gui Haichao is a professor at Beijing Aeronautics and Astronautics University,” space agency spokesman Lin Xiqiang told the press Monday.
He will be “primarily responsible for the operation of experimental space science payloads in orbit,” Lin said.
According to the university, Gui Haichao comes from an “ordinary family” in Yunnan province (in the north of the country).
He “first felt an interest in the aerospace sector when he heard the news on the radio about the first Chinese to travel to space,” Yang Liwei emphasized the university on social networks in 2003.
The mission commander is Jin Haipeng – on his fourth space mission, according to state media – and the third crew member is engineer Zhu Yangzhu.
Launch is scheduled for 9:31 a.m. local time at the Jiuguan Satellite Launch Center, the space agency said.
Until now, all Chinese astronauts sent into space have been members of the People’s Liberation Army.
During the reign of President Xi Jinping, China has stepped up operations to realize the “space dream”.
The world’s second-largest economy has invested a large budget in the space program, led by the military, in the hopes of sending astronauts to the moon.
Beijing is trying to catch up with the United States and Russia after years of delay.
In addition to a space station, China plans to build a base on the moon. The Space Agency plans to conduct a manned lunar mission by 2029.
The last module of the Tiangong station (meaning “heavenly palace”) was attached to the main structure last year.
The station contains a range of advanced scientific equipment, including “the first cold atomic space clock system,” according to the state news agency Xinhua.
Upon completion, Tiangong is expected to remain in low Earth orbit for at least 10 years, at a distance of between 400 and 450 km above planet Earth, fulfilling the country’s ambition to maintain a human presence in the region for an extended period of time. to keep the space.
The station will have a permanent crew, in a rotating system of teams of three astronauts, who will conduct scientific experiments and help test new technologies.
China does not intend to use Tiangong in a global cooperation system such as the International Space Station (ISS), but Beijing has stated that it is open to foreign cooperation.
The country has been on the sidelines of the International Space Station since 2011, when Washington banned NASA from cooperating with Beijing.
Source: DN
