Meet the astronauts set to blast off on first Chinese space station mission
- All three are veterans who came from humble beginnings in rural China
- They’ll spend three months on the Tianhe doing tests and maintenance
The men are expected travel into orbit on Thursday morning aboard the Shenzhou-12 spacecraft and will live on the Tianhe – the first module of the Tiangong space station – where they will conduct tests, maintenance and spacewalks.
“This mission will be the first manned flight as part of China space station’s construction. I’m very fortunate to kick off the first leg of the space station’s construction and I have many hopes,” Nie told reporters on Wednesday. “China’s space exploration development has crystallised the Chinese people’s thousand-year dream of flying to the sky, and added a heroic chapter to the 100-year history of struggle of the party.”
Joining Nie for China’s first manned space flight in five years are Liu Boming, an experienced astronaut who has travelled to space once before, and Tang Hongbo, who will be on his first space mission.
Nie comes from a small village in the central province of Hubei. One of six children, his parents struggled to pay for his education – he once brought a rabbit to school to pay for his fees, according to a 2018 China National Radio report.
