“We will not only have to arrange the core module, the ‘space home,’” he said, “but also to carry out a series of key technology verifications.”
At 56, he is the oldest Chinese astronaut to fly in space. (The oldest person ever to do so was John Glenn, the first American in orbit, who returned 36 years later aboard the space shuttle Discovery in 1998, when he was 77.)
Another crew member, Maj. Gen. Liu Boming, 54, is also a space veteran, having been part of a mission in 2008 that included China’s first spacewalk. That feat was accomplished by another astronaut, Zhai Zhigang, but General Liu briefly emerged from a portal to become the second Chinese astronaut to walk in space. The third astronaut, Col. Tang Hongbo, 45, is making his first trip after 11 years of training.
China previously launched two, short-lived prototype space stations, also called Tiangong, in 2011 and 2016. This one is intended to be more durable, serving for the next decade as an orbiting laboratory for the country’s space program.
Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/17/world/asia/china-space.html
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