The crew members of China's Shenzhou-18 manned spaceflight are entrusted with tasks of their specialties, all serving as backups for each other during their six-month stay in space.
During this spaceflight mission, Ye Guangfu is serving as the commander for the first time. He took his first journey into space back in 2021 on the Shenzhou-13 mission as a crew member.
The 43-year-old astronaut joined the People's Liberation Army Air Force in 1998. He was selected to join the second batch of Chinese astronauts back in 2010.
"Compared with the last mission, 03 on this mission will be more engaged in on-orbit daily maintenance, care and management, while also conducting numerous experiments and tests. Also this time, 03 is indeed leading two new colleagues as the mission commander, so there will be a lot of challenges and pressure, because as the commander, I am responsible for the entire task," said Ye.
Although the Shenzhou-18 trio have clearly defined roles, at the same time, they will also serve as backups for each other.
"Our mission is divided into two parts. The first part involves the launch and return phases of the manned spacecraft. The second part involves tasks in the space station, for which we have initially decided that 01 is to focus on the overall control; I will be responsible for space experiments and health maintenance training; 03 will take care of station maintenance and material management," said Li Cong, astronaut of Shenzhou-18 manned mission.
One of the standards for astronaut training is to enable them to have comprehensive skills and serve as backups for each other.
"In our preliminary discussions within the team, we agreed that although we are all astronauts, we should possess comprehensive abilities and be capable of backing up each other in all operations. However, in order to bring everyone's strength into full play, we plan to leverage everyone's specialties during the early stage after entering the orbit, and then we will conduct a rotation after entering the middle or late stages," said Li Guangsu, another astronaut of the Shenzhou-18 manned mission.
China's Shenzhou-18 spaceship crew have entered the country's space station and met with the Shenzhou-17 trio on Friday. The space get-together of the two crews kicked off the fourth in-orbit crew rotation in China's space station.
According to the China Manned Space Agency, the six astronauts will live and work together for about five days to complete planned tasks and handover work.
The Shenzhou-17 crew plans to return to the Dongfeng landing site in China's Inner Mongolia on April 30, the China Manned Space Agency announced at a press conference on Wednesday.
Three astronauts have clearly defined roles, serving as backups for each other
Chinese President Xi Jinping's Special Representative and Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress Zheng Jianbang attended the 15th Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Banjul, Gambia, said Lin Jian, spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China in Beijing on Monday.
Lin briefed the media on details of Zheng's attendance to the OIC summit at a regular press briefing.
"At the invitation of Gambian President Adama Barrow, from May 4 to 5, President Xi Jinping's Special Representative and Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress Zheng Jianbang attended the 15th Islamic Summit Conference of the OIC in Banjul, the capital of the Gambia, and read the congratulatory message from President Xi at the opening ceremony. China noted that the Final Communique adopted at the conference said the Conference welcomed the visit by a delegation from the OIC to the People's Republic of China including the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, in response to an official invitation from China. It also welcomed the participation of the special representative of the Chinese President in the 15th Islamic Summit Conference and anticipates further cooperation between the OIC and the People's Republic of China. This is highly appreciated by China," Lin said.
"On May 5, President Adama Barrow met with Vice Chairman Zheng Jianbang who conveyed President Xi's warm greetings to President Barrow and congratulated the Gambia on hosting the conference. President Barrow asked Vice Chairman Zheng Jianbang to convey his hearty greetings to President Xi and sincerely thanked President Xi for sending a special representative to the conference. He stressed that the Gambia values its friendship with China, firmly supports the one-China principle, and stands ready to work with China to deepen cooperation in various fields and achieve greater progress in bilateral relations," Lin said.
"The fact that President Xi Jinping sent a special representative to the summit and that the conference adopted a Final Communique containing the aforementioned positive wording on China fully demonstrates the common aspiration of China and Islamic states to work together, carry forward traditional friendship, and advance the relations between China and Islamic states. China will continue working with Islamic states to strengthen political mutual trust, deepen practical cooperation, advance exchanges among civilizations, implement the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative and the Global Civilization Initiative, and make greater contributions to building a community with a shared future for mankind," Lin said.
Xi's special representative attends OIC summit: spokesman
