Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

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China has finished recruiting a total of six astronauts for spaceflight missions in 2023.

Chinese astronauts will be on regular duty at the country’s space station in the future. Each batch of astronauts will support a mission duration of six months. There will be two batches of six astronauts in total to conduct spaceflight missions this year.

The update on the new astronauts comes from China’s first space traveler, Yang Liwei, also deputy chief designer of China’s manned space program.

“Before the start of the spaceflight mission, we will select the astronauts one or one and a half years in advance, including the astronauts who will perform the mission and the backup crew,” Yang said in a recent interview with the China Media Group.

Diverse backgrounds

“Now we’ve basically conducted astronaut selection for two missions together, and will select a backup crew. This is conducive to the connection between the regular training and that of the backup astronauts. Therefore, you can also imagine that we must have selected the next space station crew and the backup crew for this year’s missions, which is conducive to the execution of our entire mission,” Yang said.

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China’s first batch of astronauts were initially pilots from the air force, “and now our astronauts come from colleges, universities, research institutions, engineering departments, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences,” Yang said.

Training rules and regulations

The selection of China’s fourth batch of astronauts will also be open to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) and the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR).

“From this point of view, there are many different changes in the source of astronauts. In terms of occupations, drivers, engineers, and payload specialists all have the chance to be astronauts. So far, our standards and training rules and regulations have become mature and entered the application stage, as of course, we are now moving into the operational phase of the space station,” Yang said.