Chen Dong is about to embark on his first space mission early Monday.
When flying aircraft, he often wondered what it would be like to push through the Earth's atmosphere, he recalled.
He will soon find out. The 38-year-old aviator is one half of the two-member team for the Shenzhou-11 manned space mission.
Chen will work with Jing Haipeng and dock with China's Tiangong-2 space lab, where they will work for 30 days.
Recruited as an astronaut in 2010, Chen is proud of being selected.
"I'm so excited that my space dream will soon come true," he told Xinhua, "but I must remain calm because I need to focus on my mission."
In addition to his responsibilities as a taikonaut, Chen will also be a Xinhua space correspondent, covering the mission and answering netizens' questions, all of which will be shared by Xinhua with the world.
BEST CANDIDATE
"I am the best person for the Shenzhou-11 mission," Chen said.
When compared with his peers, especially Ye Guangfu, who completed a European Space Agency (ESA) underground training mission in Italy in July, Chen, while lauding his excellence, said, "crew members are selected for being the most suitable for each mission."
He will never forget that it was his "hero" Yang Liwei, China's first astronaut, who interviewed him during his astronaut recruitment process.
Jing Haipeng, commander of the Shenzhou-11 mission, said the two men are very similar and have worked very well together throughout the six year training period.
【国内英语资讯:China Focus: The sky-high dreams of Shenzhou-11 astronaut Chen Dong】相关文章:
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