This is the first time that China has obtained a full picture of the space station assembly with the earth as the background in orbit, and it is also the first set of full-configuration working photos of China's space station. After a five-month space business trip, Shenzhou-16 set off to return to Earth as a farewell space station.
Gui Haichao: I think our astronauts are amazing. Their wisdom, hard work, and struggle from generation to generation have finally given us a space home, which can give me, as an ordinary person, the opportunity to see its face with my eyes.
80 days after returning to Earth, on January 19, 2024, Shenzhou-16 astronauts Jing Haipeng, Zhu Yangzhu, and Gui Haichao appeared at the press conference. Commander Jing Haipeng wore another flight mission badge on his chest, setting a new record of flying four times.
Reporter: Personally, after flying three times, this is already much better than your peers and even peers. And at that time it was 50 years old, why did you still let it continue when you could make a full stop?
Jing Haipeng: I know very well in my resume that the children who came out of the countryside can come to this day step by step, and can realize one dream after another, I said that we have caught up with the good times and the new era. I think as myself, after flying three times, I can't revel in fame and honor, let alone lie on the credit book and be complacent. I'm probably going to do one thing in my life – aerospace, so I'm really eager to go to space again, to run the space station of my own.
This is a completely new combination, and for the first time, the Shenzhou-16 crew is composed of three types of astronauts: astronauts, space flight engineers and payload specialists. Jing Haipeng and two teammates who are 20 years younger than him and have no experience in "flying" form a "cross-generational combination".
In his 13-year flying career before becoming an astronaut, Jing Haipeng accumulated 1,200 hours of safe flight. From being selected as one of China's first astronauts in 1998 to carrying out the Shenzhou 7 mission in 2008, it took ten years of hard work to realize his dream. In the face of these two new members of the astronaut team, how to pass on the help in the limited one-year period is the key issue in front of Jing Haipeng.
From Shenzhou 7, to Shenzhou 9, and then to Shenzhou 11, every time he triumphed, Jing Haipeng's first thing to do was to reset to zero, re-accept the "devil training" again and again, and choose to face the challenge and test again and again. 600 push-ups, 600 sit-ups, and thousands of rope jumps are his daily standard. There are more than 70 flight manuals and operation guides, and thousands of instructions are already familiar to me. The road to heaven seems to be calm now, but behind every task, there is a rigorous style that does not miss every second.
What Jing Haipeng feared had happened in his space debut. In 2008, Shenzhou 7 carried out the first space out-of-cabin activity, and during the mission, when the hatch was opened, the orbital module suddenly sounded a fire alarm. Although it was confirmed and judged by the joint inspection of heaven and earth afterwards that the fire alarm was a false alarm and a false alarm in the instrument in a vacuum environment, Jing Haipeng still remembered the real distress feeling at that time.
Jing Haipeng: Because in the sky, not in the simulator, if we say that the orbital module fire, we think that it must be simulated, and it can't be done, so we do it slowly, and the slower we do it, the more accurate and the higher the score. But in heaven, so I have experienced, felt, and experienced, so I feel that in the past 26 years, I have felt a lot of sweat, and I often feel this challenge, this risk.
Before becoming an astronaut, Zhu Yangzhu was a faculty member in the Department of Astronautics Science and Technology at the University of Aerospace Engineering, where he was responsible for the construction of the basic laboratory of mechanics. He applied for the pilot exam twice, but missed his dream. In 2018, China began to recruit the third batch of astronauts, adding two categories of aerospace flight engineers and payload experts for the first time, and no longer limited to air force pilots, began to be selected from relevant universities and scientific research institutes. Hearing this news, Zhu Yangzhu planned to sign up.
Zhu Yangzhu: Since I was a child, I liked the blue sky and wanted to fly in the blue sky. Our hometown is in the Northern Jiangsu Plain on the shore of Weishan Lake, and there are plains there. When I was a child, I had a desire to fly into the blue sky and look out at the beautiful plains of my hometown. There is a poem called "Dapeng rises with the wind one day and soars up to 90,000 miles", which may be a feeling of pursuing romance in the bottom of my heart, and this kind of romance I think is a kind of romance in the pursuit of science.
In September 2020, Zhu Yangzhu was successfully selected and became one of the 7 aerospace flight engineers in the third batch of 18 reserve astronauts in China. At the beginning of 2021, he officially joined the team and registered.
In order to adapt to the special environment of space, astronauts need to carry out many aspects of space environment adaptation training on the earth, such as overweight endurance adaptation training and vestibular function training. Among them, in order to adapt to and endure the overweight phenomenon brought about by space flight, astronauts have to carry out a lot of centrifuge training on the ground, and they have to bear an overload of about 8 g at most, which is equivalent to a load of 8 times their body weight on the body.
During Zhu Yangzhu's training, it was when the curtain began on the full construction of China's space station. With the relay of Shenzhou 12, 13, 14 and 15 to build the Dream Heavenly Palace, the Chinese's own space home has gradually become a reality from a dream.
Gui Haichao, who is also waiting to be selected, is one of the four payload experts in the third batch of reserve astronauts. As a young professor and doctoral supervisor of Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Gui Haichao has neither flying experience nor military school experience, and has encountered considerable challenges in the training process.
Before becoming an astronaut, Gui Haichao's life resume can be described as "open" all the way. He is from Shidian County, Baoshan City, Yunnan Province, and was admitted to the Aircraft Design and Engineering major of the School of Astronautics of Beihang University with the first place in science in Shidian County in the college entrance examination. After receiving a doctorate degree in engineering, he went overseas to engage in postdoctoral research, and returned to work at the Institute of Astronautics after returning to China, becoming a doctoral supervisor at the age of 31. When he learned that China was going to select the first batch of load experts, Gui Haichao immediately signed up. In his heart, there is also a seed of "flying dream".
As the third batch of astronauts, Gui Haichao is undoubtedly lucky, he caught up with the intensive flight missions of the Chinese space station stage, and the chances of flying to realize his dream have greatly increased. But luck doesn't mean the standard of training will be lowered. The training content, high intensity, and tight progress are the difficult problems facing Gui Haichao.
In June 2022, Zhu Yangzhu and Gui Haichao were selected for the Shenzhou-16 mission crew at the same time, and they will complete the space debut of the third batch of astronauts in China. As the commander, Jing Haipeng, one of China's first astronauts, has flown three times.
On May 30, 2023, the departure ceremony of the astronauts of the Shenzhou-16 manned mission was held at the Wentian Pavilion Dream Garden Square of the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. This is the first manned mission of China's manned space program to enter the space station application and development stage.
At 9:31 on May 30, 2023, with the launch of the Long March-2F Yao-16 carrier rocket to lift the manned spacecraft, the Shenzhou-16 astronaut crew successfully rushed to Tiangong and started their own exploration journey.
About 9 hours later, the Shenzhou-15 astronaut crew successfully opened the "home door" to welcome the Shenzhou-16 astronaut crew from afar. Jing Haipeng flew into the sky four times and settled in the "Heavenly Palace" as he wished.
During the five-month orbit period, Shenzhou-16 carried out a total of 70 space experiments in aerospace medicine, life ecology, fluid mechanics, aerospace technology, and 8 research projects on human factors engineering technology, and obtained a large amount of experimental data. At the same time, important progress has been made in the fields of space life science and human research, microgravity physics, and new space technologies, and an important step has been taken in the transformation of the manned space program from construction to application and from input to output.
At about 13:40 on July 20, 2023, Jing Haipeng and Zhu Yangzhu left the cabin together. With the support of the robotic arm, Jing Haipeng docked more than 30 points, and Zhu Yangzhu climbed more than 100 handrails on the bulkhead.
This time, the Shenzhou-16 astronaut crew will cooperate to complete the installation and lifting of the on-orbit bracket of the panoramic camera B of the "Tianhe" core module, and the unlocking and lifting of the panoramic cameras A and B of the "Mengtian" experimental module. During the out-of-cabin activities, Gui Haichao paid attention to the instrument data in the cabin throughout the whole process, and cooperated with and supported two teammates to carry out extravehicular operations.
During a long-term out-of-cabin mission, the out-of-cabin astronauts have to go through multiple alternating sunny areas and shadow areas, and Gui Haichao paid special attention to the extravehicular suit-related parameters of the two out-of-cabin teammates.
After 8 hours of out-of-cabin activities, at 21:40 on July 20, 2023, Jing Haipeng and Zhu Yangzhu completed all the scheduled out-of-cabin tasks and successfully returned to the Wentian experimental module of the space station, and the out-of-cabin mission was a complete success.
Zhu Yangzhu: I feel very happy to enjoy the spacewalk, just enjoy the process, and it is really a happiness to complete the mission. For the first time, we were able to carry out the mission of the capsule, and I think we are strong and confident enough, and I am also very grateful for our new era, that is, the new era allows us to have dreams to chase and dreams to come true.
Jing Haipeng: Although Gui Haichao did not leave the cabin, the three of us were together. We were done, and he was waiting for us at the hatch to give us both a hug, and I was very touched at that time. When three people are together, this compatibility makes them want to be together, eat together, drink together, and work together. Before we go to heaven, our goal is 1+1+1=1, what is the concept of one? Unity as one, crew as one, heaven and earth as one, one heart, we are fingers into a fist, team fighting.
On October 31, 2023, Jing Haipeng, Zhu Yangzhu, and Gui Haichao returned to Earth safely, marking that China's existing three types of astronauts have completed the flight assessment and practical test.
Reporter: After completing this mission, are there any more opportunities in the future?
Zhu Yangzhu: There will definitely be opportunities in the future. In fact, I also want to strive to return to Tiangong as soon as possible, and I also want to use my own hands to improve the level of China's space science and technology and make my own contribution. I hope to bring my own project in the future, that's the best.
Reporter: After you came back, these students of yours were very excited, and the tutor came back.
Gui Haichao: That's right. Send me a message, congratulations, teacher, on finally coming back, I want you to come back and share it with us. I'm also very happy and looking forward to meeting them. I passed on the spirit of manned space flight to the students.
Jing Haipeng: After I returned, I praised our Zhu Yangzhu and Gui Haichao for the first time, and they did perform very well, out of 100 points, and I gave them 120 points, so they performed very well. Especially after the mission is successful, see the two of them. Whether you see it from the side or from the back, first of all, the waist bar is very straight. At the same time, with sonorous steps, flashing with this resolute gaze and confident eyes, he was full of strength. I was so happy when I saw it, really, I was very happy.
Reporter: I think it's not just a pleasure that you're a colleague of theirs this time. What's more important is because you, the seniors, have paved the road ahead, so that they have a road, a ready-made road to walk.
Jing Haipeng: Indeed, I feel that two more commanders have been trained this time, and they will lead the team next time without any problems.
*: CCTV news client.
Process edit: u031