Elementary school students who listened to Wang Yaping's space lectures are now welcoming astronauts home

The journey of flying in the sky with dreams shows the strength of youth. From the first surface-to-ground missile to the first long-range launch vehicle, from the first artificial earth satellite to the space station, generations of astronauts at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center have continued to struggle. Nowadays, groups of young aerospace scientists and technicians are worthy of great responsibilities and shoulder great missions to go to the sea of stars.

At 9:56 on April 16, 2022, Shenzhou 13 returned safely to the Dongfeng landing site in a group, and at that moment, Guan Canhui was particularly excited, as a member of the aerospace search and rescue team of the Dongfeng landing field, successfully completed the instructions for the astronaut module landing, safe exit, and healthy return to Beijing, contributing to the construction of the "three most" spaceport.

Born in 2000, Guan Canhui is a native of Yueyang, Hunan Province, and the 22-year-old has participated in a large-scale search and rescue recovery mission for the fourth time. For this moment, he prepared for more than 5 months. Recalling the scene on the day of the mission, he was still excited.

On April 16, at 4:30 a.m., Guan Canhui quickly got up, dressed up, and ate breakfast. Today's breakfast must be full, not only so that he can maintain enough physical strength to complete the task of nearly 8 hours, but also so that there will be no motion sickness on the plane, Guan Canhui thought. I remember participating in the Chang'e 5 return mission in 2020, when I first got on the plane, I was airsick, and later, he found that those who had eaten enough before getting on the plane would not get airsick.

At 5:30, Guan Canhui arrived at the airport, boarded the plane, started the equipment, checked the status, debugged, etc., to ensure that all the equipment entered the working state. In the course of the previous joint exercises, Guan Canhui found that due to the particularly severe vibration on the plane, the wiring between the equipment would be loosened and fall off, so he specially backed up the wiring in case of emergency.

At 7:40, the air detachment arrived at the standby assembly point. Here, the air detachment was on standby until the return capsule braking began, and then began to converge towards the landing point. The communication machine where Guan Canhui is located is mainly to ensure the smoothness of internal equipment networking, image transmission, communication, and scheduling. He said a high degree of concentration must be maintained during the task.

In 2018, 18-year-old Guan Canhui came to the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center with a yearning for the space industry. In the aerospace search and rescue detachment, he was fortunate to learn from Li Zhanshan, a communications technician known as the search and rescue "grassland living map" and "communication pass", step by step, from "Xiao Bai" to a qualified communications post personnel. In the past four years, he has participated in the search and rescue and recovery missions of Long March 5b, Chang'e 5, Shenzhou 12, and Shenzhou 13.

In order to prepare for the Shenzhou 13 mission, in November last year, Guan Canhui followed Li Zhanshan to Beijing to reload the equipment on the plane. After three months of intense debugging, the task was completed. At that time, it was close to the Spring Festival, and the plan to prepare for the New Year's vacation home was canceled, and the Spring Festival was spent in a hotel in Beijing. Guan Canhui said that although the Spring Festival reunion is our traditional custom in China, as a member of the aerospace search and rescue team, it is very common to miss the reunion with the family because of the mission.

At 9:08, after receiving the forecast of the spacecraft's return braking, the air detachment moved closer to the target area. Guan Canhui knew that the time for a decisive battle had arrived, and he must play the spirit of twelve points. The air detachment is the first search and rescue force to reach the landing site of the return module, and it must ensure that all communication lines in the air are unblocked and maintain real-time communication with the command center.

At 9:45, the dispatch heard the sound of the return capsule throwing a heat-proof outsole, and the air detachment began to approach the target location. Guan Canhui was particularly excited and must capture the target at the first time.

On June 20, 2013, space teacher Wang Yaping gave space lessons to more than 60 million students across the country in the Tiangong-1 experimental module. Guan Canhui is one of them, he is reading the sixth grade of primary school, watching Teacher Wang Yaping teaching in space, he feels very interesting and magical, so he is full of curiosity about aerospace, and his dream of becoming a scientist has sprouted in his heart. Unexpectedly, 5 years later, he joined the space team and became a member of the space search and rescue team. What he did not expect was that 9 years later, he personally welcomed Wang Yaping back to Earth at the Dongfeng landing field.

The helicopter remained circling at the predetermined location, and suddenly, a black dot jumped into the picture, and Guan Canhui keenly spotted the return capsule, "the communication plane found the return capsule, and the pod followed closely", and he transmitted the picture to the command center at the first time.

At 9:56, a puff of smoke rose from the Gobi Desert, and the return capsule landed, and Guan Canhui's hanging heart finally landed.

"When I was a child, watching Teacher Wang Yaping teach in space inspired me to dream of becoming a scientist. Although I am not a scientist now, as an astronaut, I feel very sacred to be able to participate in space search and rescue missions. If I hadn't come to Dongfeng, maybe I would have been an ordinary youth, and it was aerospace that lit up my dream, and I was willing to dedicate my youth and strength to this dream. Guan Canhui said happily.

Photo: Li Yunxi, Dong Yanrong, Wang Zhen, Wang Haixia

Source People's Daily client Gansu Channel

Edited by Li Tuo

Process Editor Yan Shengmiao