CGTN: Shenzhou-12 astronauts become first Chinese to enter a space station
AsiaNet 90209
BEIJING, June 21, 2021 /PRNewswire=KYODO JBN/ --
Three Chinese astronauts entered their country's space station during the
Shenzhou-12 mission, ending the history of no Chinese in space stations.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QINRV_S-Pkk
The trio, Nie Haisheng, Liu Boming and Tang Hongbo, entered the space station's
core module "Tianhe" from the Shenzhou-12 spacecraft launched on Thursday,
according to the China Manned Space Engineering Office.
This came more than 20 years after the International Space Station (ISS) was
launched, which does not allow Chinese astronauts to be onboard because of a
U.S. law banning the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) from
working with their Chinese counterparts.
As the ISS is retiring and Russia has decided to pull from the project, China
has stood out to build a new space station and is inviting global cooperation.
The China space station, orbiting the Earth at a height of about 400
kilometers, is still under construction, as eight more missions including three
manned ones are still being prepared.
Currently the station is composed of a core module named Tianhe, a supply ship
Tianzhou-2 and the Shenzhou-12, which docked with the space station less than
three hours before the entering.
Astronaut, cosmonaut or taikonaut?
Some Chinese are so proud of the latest achievements that they revived the
topic of how to name people in space.
The naming problem emerged in the Cold War, when Soviet Union named their space
heroes "cosmonauts" while the U.S. called theirs "astronaut."
Later, the word "taikonaut" was coined using the Mandarin equivalent of the
word space – taikong – and the common suffix "-naut".
Oxford and Longman dictionaries listed the word taikonaut and said it means a
Chinese astronaut.
The next steps
Now the three astronauts are unpacking the supplies on Tianzhou-2, setting up
Wi-Fi connections and other equipment on the space station.
They will live in the station for at least three months and conduct various
technology test and science experiments, during which spacewalks involving
robot arms will also be performed.
SOURCE: CGTN
本プレスリリースは発表元が入力した原稿をそのまま掲載しております。また、プレスリリースへのお問い合わせは発表元に直接お願いいたします。
このプレスリリースには、報道機関向けの情報があります。
プレス会員登録を行うと、広報担当者の連絡先や、イベント・記者会見の情報など、報道機関だけに公開する情報が閲覧できるようになります。
