Taikonaut Tang Hongbo entered space on the Shenzhou-17 crewed spaceship on Oct. 26, becoming the first taikonaut to return to the Tiangong space station with the shortest interval between crewed spaceflight missions to date.
For Tang, 48, the Shenzhou-17 mission is both a trip of exploration and \”homecoming\”.
The veteran mission commander was born in 1975 in Xiangtan, central China\’s Hunan Province. At the age of 18, he told his father that he wanted to be a military aviator, and received strong support for this dream from his parents.
Chinese taikonauts Tang Hongbo (C), Tang Shengjie (R) and Jiang Xinlin attend a see-off ceremony at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China, Oct. 26, 2023. (Photo: China News Service/Wang Jiangbo)
Fortunately, he was admitted by a flight academy of the PLA Air Force and became a pilot after graduation.
After eight years of training, he was promoted to the head of a flight group thanks to his outstanding performance.
\”I like hearing the roar of jet engines taking off, and I enjoy maneuvering the plane through the clouds—there\’s something so wonderful about gliding through the sky,\” he said.
In 2010, Tang was selected as one of China\’s second batch of reserve taikonauts. However, he found there was a huge difference between being a pilot and a taikonaut. The hundreds of training courses that taikonauts must complete were a big challenge for his learning abilities, and pushed him to his physiological and psychological limits.
The weightlessness training was initially a hurdle Tang could not overcome. For a time, he became agitated and restless as soon as he put on the training suit. However, after repeated practice and adjustments, he gradually became comfortable with the training. Eventually, he was able to push past the hurdle that the training had posed.
Photo shows Tang Hongbo during underwater weightlessness training
In June 2021, he entered space for the first time with the Shenzhou-12 mission crew, after waiting and preparing for this day for 11 years.
\”I want to be a better version of myself, striving to be slightly better everyday. As I once said, in order to grow upwards, one must first establish strong roots downwards,\” said Tang.
Tang said his days in the space station were busy but fulfilling. He said that during that period, he would plan out the entire day\’s work immediately after getting up. His longest workday lasted 17 hours. Despite the gruelling workload, he had to stay focused and alert at all times.
He said he always watched the Earth from the space station during the mission. \”Once a land of poverty and weakness, China now shines as the brightest and most beautiful place on this planet. I truly feel proud and honored for our great motherland,\” he said.
During their three-month stay in the space, the crew set up the space station\’s working and living quarters, maintained its operations, carried out two extravehicular activities, conducted scientific experiments and tested new technologies, laying crucial groundwork for the space station\’s construction and operations.
As Tang completed his mission and prepared to depart from the space station, he was struck by a sense of reluctance. \”Before I left, I stayed a while in the core module of the space station, thinking that I would definitely come back,\” he said.
Now, he really has come back to his \”home in space.\”
As the mission commander this time, Tang knows that the Shenzhou-17 mission is more challenging and the tasks more complicated, because now the space station comes with a three-module configuration, while there was only one core module when Tang joined the Shenzhou-12 mission.
Over the past year or more, Tang and two other taikonauts from the crew have gone through frequent training exercises on the ground. He said that only with solid ground training can taikonauts do well in space.
\”In space flight, danger is everywhere. You could say taikonauts have to keep one eye open even while sleeping,\” Tang noted.