China introduces its first female spaceflight engineer as it unveils launch time, crew for Shenzhou-19 manned mission

(Global Times) -- China announced Tuesday it will launch the Shenzhou-19 manned spaceflight mission at 4:27 am on Wednesday, unveiling the crew lineup. Leading the mission will be Commander Cai Xuzhe, a veteran taikonaut who previously flew on the Shenzhou-14 mission in 2022. Joining him are two astronauts making their first journey into space - Song Lingdong and female astronaut Wang Haoze.

Courtesy of the CMSA.

Lin Xiqiang, a CMSA spokesperson, shared the news at a Tuesday press conference.
Born in 1976, Cai was selected as part of China’s second batch of astronauts in 2010.
Song was born in 1990 and joined the third astronaut cohort in September 2020. The Shenzhou-19 mission is Song’s debut in space.
Wang, also born in 1990, was a former senior engineer at the country’s leading space contractor China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp (CASC), and became part of China’s third batch of astronauts in 2020. Wang is also the country’s first female spaceflight engineer, according to the China Manned Space Agency on Tuesday.
Global Times learned from the Sixth Academy of the CASC, Wang, after graduating with a Master’s degree in 2015, joined Beijing Institute 11 of the Sixth Academy, taking on the overall design task of engines.
The Sixth Academy provided 58 main propulsion and attitude-orbit control engines, along with critical equipment like the thermal control subsystem and life support system pumps and valves. The Sixth Academy will escort astronauts with its top-quality engine products, ensuring the mission’s complete success.
Lin, during the Tuesday press conference, also revealed that the fourth batch of Chinese astronauts will not only execute China Space Station missions but also the country’s manned lunar missions in the future. And therefore, their training subjects emphasise essential skills such as living, working and maintaining health in a weightless environment.
The selection of the fourth batch Chinese astronauts has concluded in May and total of 10 astronaut candidates made to the final list, with eight of them to be space pilot and two as payload experts. Their training started in August, according to Lin.
Subsequently, based on the training outline and overall plan, training tasks will be conducted in an orderly manner, covering over 200 subjects in eight major categories, following a step-by-step approach from basic to advanced levels, he said.
Astronauts will master specialised skills including extravehicular activities, equipment maintenance, and space science experiments. Additionally, in preparation for future manned lunar missions, training will further develop astronauts’ capabilities in spacecraft operation, lunar rover driving, celestial navigation, geological fieldwork, as well as adapting from weightlessness in space to walking with loads on the lunar surface, the spokesperson revealed.
Two payload experts selected in the fourth batch astronauts are from China’s Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions, and they joined the team on August 8. “We believe that the fourth batch of astronauts, including those from Hong Kong and Macau, will complete each training task on schedule and with high quality, gradually becoming the backbone of future manned space missions,” Lin said on Tuesday. Lin also said that the lunar rover proposal underwent two selection rounds. Ultimately, the teams from the CASC’s Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology and the China Academy of Spacecraft Technology won the top two spots.

(Latest Update October 30, 2024)