China's Crewed Space Program Achieves Major Milestones over Past Two Decades
China reached a historic milestone on October 15, 2003, when taikonaut Yang Liwei stepped out of the Shenzhou-5 re-entry capsule after spending just over 21 hours orbiting Earth in space.
Sunday, Oct. 15, 2023, marked the 20th anniversary of his flight into space aboard the Shenzhou-5 spacecraft. The mission made China the third country in the world to achieve human spaceflight capabilities. Yang entered the history books as the first Chinese space traveler.
In a recent interview with Xinhua, Yang, who is now the deputy chief designer of China's human spaceflight projects, said that his memories of the last two decades are full of "pride and admiration."
"When I saw more colleagues realize their flight dreams and reunite in the Tiangong space station, I felt happy and so envious of them," Yang said.
He also listed several other advancements that have made him "jealous"—spaceflights have lengthened from one day to six months, the number of taikonauts in orbit has risen from one to six, and his old "space home" has become increasingly comfortable, expanding from 6 cubic meters to 110 cubic meters.
Yang also noted that several technical difficulties have been overcome, such as space-Earth shuttling and orbital docking. This enables in-orbit taikonauts to watch live sports events and make phone calls with their families at any time.
Nevertheless, many of these technological breakthroughs benefited from the contributions of taikonauts, and Yang has certainly been a contributor.
When his rocket lifted to an approximate height of 30-40 kilometers above the ground, for example, Yang felt it begin to vibrate violently. "The fierce vibration was shattering my body, and the pain grew unbearable," Yang recalled.
After his return to Earth, Yang reported the abnormal vibrations during the rocket's ascent to his fellow scientists, who resolved the issue before the Shenzhou-6 launch.
To his delight, more people are now joining the taikonaut ranks. Yang revealed that a hundred candidates for the fourth group of taikonauts have passed the preliminary selection process, with about 10 coming from Hong Kong or Macao.
"Shortly, there will be astronauts from other countries conducting scientific experiments aboard the Chinese space station," Yang said, noting that Tiangong serves as a national space experiment platform and brings benefits to humanity as a whole.
Future taikonauts will go further, as China has launched a crewed lunar exploration project and made breakthroughs in key technologies related to new-generation manned rockets and spacecraft.
When asked if he would undertake more spaceflight missions, the 58-year-old taikonaut said, "I'm always ready for the nation's call."
China launched its Shenzhou-16 crewed spacecraft on May 30, 2023, sending three astronauts to the Tiangong space station for a five-month mission.
The Shenzhou-15 crew returned to Earth at the Dongfeng landing site on June 4 after fulfilling a six-month mission and completing the in-orbit crew rotation with their Shenzhou-16 colleagues in space.
This month, Shenzhou-17 is scheduled to blast off from China's Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center.
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