(Jiuquan) China will send a civilian astronaut into space for the first time on Tuesday for a manned mission to the Tiangong space station, another step in pursuing its ambitions of exploration beyond the atmosphere. earthly.
This astronaut, Gui Haichao, a “payload specialist”, is “a professor at the University of Aeronautics and Astronautics in Beijing”, said Lin Xiqiang, spokesperson for the Chinese Agency, at a press conference on Monday. manned spaceflight.
Until now, all Chinese astronauts who have taken off into space have been part of the People’s Liberation Army.
Mr. Gui will be “primarily responsible for the in-orbit management of payloads” devoted to space science experiments, the spokesperson said.
The civilian astronaut will fly in orbit alongside Shenzhou-16 mission commander Jing Haipeng and astronaut Zhu Yangzhu.
The crew is scheduled to take off from the Jiuquan launch base in northwest China on Tuesday at 9:31 a.m. local time (9:31 p.m. ET), the space agency said.
Mr. Gui comes from an “ordinary family” in Yunnan province (west), described Beihang University, another name of the institution for which the professor works.
He “felt an attraction for aerospace” in 2003, following the flight of the first Chinese in space on his campus radio, his university reported on social networks.
“Space Dream”
Projects linked to the Chinese “space dream” are multiplying under the presidency of Xi Jinping.
The Asian giant has been investing billions of dollars in its military-led space program for several decades, which has enabled it to make up most of its lag against the Americans and the Russians.
China sent its first astronaut into space in 2003, and its Tiangong (“Heavenly Palace”) space station has been fully operational since late 2022. In 2019, a Chinese craft landed on the far side of the Moon. Then, in 2021, China brought a small robot to the surface of Mars. It plans to send a first crew to the Moon by 2029.
The last module of Tiangong station successfully docked with the main structure of the facility in 2022.
The orbital base is equipped with state-of-the-art scientific equipment, including the “first cold atomic clock system” for space, according to the New China news agency.
Tiangong is expected to fly in low Earth orbit at an altitude of 400 to 450 kilometers for at least 10 years to allow China to maintain a long-term human presence in space.
Crews will take turns to ensure a continuous presence within the orbital laboratory, will carry out scientific experiments and test new technologies.
Beijing does not plan to use Tiangong for cooperation with other countries on the same scale as the International Space Station, but says it is open to possible collaborations whose scope is unknown.
China was kicked off the International Space Station in 2011 when Washington banned NASA from cooperating with Beijing.