Add two females to China’s growing cadre of astronauts according to China’s National Space Administration (CNSA) and as reported by Chinese media outlets.
Word from China Daily last week is that the two women are both aged 30 to 35, married, have college diplomas and fly transport aircraft for the Chinese air force.
The two women were part of China’s second batch of astronauts. They join five males that were also part of the new group. The five men are fighter pilots and, on average, each of the seven new astronauts in training has accumulated some 1,270 hours of flight time.
“China is expected to test its docking technology in the next few years and the seven new astronauts are selected for these new tasks,” said Chen Shanguang, director of the Astronaut Center of China, as reported by China Daily.
The new additions are reportedly going to replace some of the first batch of 14 Chinese astronauts to maintain the “moderate scale” of China’s crew of ready to fly space travelers, said Chen.
An earlier report in the Guangzhou-based Nanfang Weekly last July indicated that astronaut selectees will undergo between two and three years of training. Sui Guosheng, the air force officer in charge of recruitment, indicated that the first female astronaut could journey into space by 2012.
Space Station Work Advances
Since 2003, China has flown six astronauts in three different Shenzhou missions – one of which included that country’s first space walk.
According to Chinese space officials, the plan is to launch an unpiloted space module – Tiangong 1 – in the first half of 2011. A Shenzhou 8 would then be launched in the second half of 2011, carrying out the first space docking, followed by Shenzhou 9 and Shenzhou 10 in 2012 that also would dock with the space module.
Qi Faren, former chief designer of Shenzhou spaceships, told China’s Xinhua news agency that the 8.5-ton Tiangong-1 would be converted into a crewed space lab where Chinese astronauts would live and conduct research in zero gravity, after docking with the three Shenzhou spaceships.
Meanwhile, work is underway to construct a new spaceport in China – the Wenchang Satellite Launch Center. Located on Hainan Island, the space center is being seen as a tourist spot with leftover hardware from Shenzhou 1, Shenzhou 2 and Shenzhou 3 to be exhibited.
At the site, a space hall is also to be built within a theme park where visitors can experience space walks and eye a simulated landscape of the Moon, among other attractions.
By Leonard David