Who will be the commander of the Shenzhou-18 mission? At present, it has not been officially announced, and in addition, there are relatively many astronauts on active duty on the mainland, and the astronauts who have carried out space missions before are actually capable of serving as the commander of this mission.
Astronaut Jing Haipeng spoke highly of the astronauts Zhu Yangzhu and Gui Haichao of the Shenzhou 16 mission, and he said that after the end of the Shenzhou 16 mission, he felt that he had trained 2 more commanders, and they would have no problem leading the team to space next time. Since there are many astronauts with the ability to serve as commanders, we can't guess which astronaut is most likely to serve as the commander of the Shenzhou-18 mission.
However, one thing that is basically certain is that there is a high probability that there will be no female commander for the Shenzhou 18 mission. There are 3 active female astronauts in the mainland, namely Liu Yang, Wang Yaping and a female astronaut who has not yet made a public appearance, among which Liu Yang and Wang Yaping have the ability to serve as commanders, but in the near future, their public appearance, and the astronauts participating in the Shenzhou 18 mission are currently participating in closed training, so these two female astronauts will most likely not participate in the Shenzhou 18 mission.
For example, on April 16, female astronaut Liu Yang came to the Second Nationality Middle School of Jianzha County, Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province to participate in the "Luming Classroom" open class, and shared her dreams as a teenager with the students on the scene, as well as her experience in the aerospace industry.
Commander suspected exposure?
A science blogger named "Beijing Blue Dragon" posted a screenshot of what appeared to be astronaut Chen Dong's circle of friends on social platforms, with the text "Henan astronaut Chen Dong is on the expedition again".
And the content of the circle of friends also seems to imply that astronaut Chen Dong should be participating in closed training, because "watching the flowers bloom" and "smelling the fragrance of the flowers" have become extravagant hopes.
After seeing this content, many netizens thought that Chen Dong might participate in the Shenzhou 18 mission, or be the commander of this mission. Because it is now getting closer and closer to the launch time of the Shenzhou 18 spacecraft, it is expected to be launched in a few days. Therefore, the astronauts who participated in this mission in the near future are very busy, and they need to participate in a series of training, and they really don't have time to see and smell the flowers.
And astronaut Chen Dong himself is also very good, born in December 1978, he is only in his 40s, very young. In May 20010, Chen Dong officially joined the astronaut team, and in October 2016, Chen Dong and Jing Haipeng took the Shenzhou 11 spacecraft to space to carry out flight missions. In June 2022, Chen Dong went to space again and took the Shenzhou-14 spacecraft to the Chinese space station with Liu Yang and Cai Xuzhe.
During the Shenzhou-14 mission, astronaut Chen Dong served as mission commander and lived and worked in China's space station for six months with two other astronauts.
In other words, after joining the astronaut team, astronaut Chen Dong has already gone to space twice to carry out flight missions, and also served as the commander of the mission in the Shenzhou 14 mission, so astronaut Chen Dong is fully capable of serving as the commander of the Shenzhou 18 mission.
Of course, there is no detailed information about the commander of the Shenzhou 18 mission or the astronaut crew, so we don't know whether astronaut Chen Dong will participate in the Shenzhou 18 mission. Because his circle of friends actually didn't explain the information about the flight mission, he just didn't have time to see the flowers bloom and smell the flowers.
Therefore, it is not the details of the Shenzhou 18 mission commander that has been announced, but that some astronauts have hinted that they may be participating in mission training. The launch time of the Shenzhou 18 spacecraft is getting closer and closer, and the specific astronaut crew list will be announced soon, so you can pay attention to the new news.
Shenzhou 18 is launched at the right time!
Although the official has not yet announced the Shenzhou 18 astronaut crew and the specific time of the launch, it is certain that in a few days, the Shenzhou 18 spacecraft will be launched. Because on April 17, the Shenzhou 18 spacecraft and rocket assembly have been transferred to the launch area.
The transfer to the launch area actually means that the launch mission has entered the countdown stage, because the previous flight missions have been like this, and the rocket and spacecraft combination will be transferred to the launch area for about a week, and the launch mission will be implemented.
The Shenzhou-18 spacecraft, which is about to be launched, is the seventh manned spacecraft on the mainland to go to China's space station, and will once again realize the in-orbit rotation of two astronaut crews. The previous Shenzhou-12 and 13 spacecraft returned to Earth after completing their missions, and there were no astronauts stationed on China's space station for a period of time, and no astronauts carried out continuous flight missions.
Since the beginning of the Shenzhou-14 mission, our astronauts have started the on-orbit handover mode, and the Shenzhou-14 and Shenzhou-15 astronaut crews have completed the first in-orbit handover mission of astronauts in the mainland. So far, our astronauts have been flying continuously for nearly 2 years, and when the Shenzhou-18 mission is nearing the end, the continuous flight time of mainland astronauts will continue to be increased to about 29 months.
Japan and 17 other countries were selected for the space station project
Now we will have a Shenzhou manned spacecraft to the Chinese space station every year to carry out flight missions, 6 astronauts enter the Chinese space station every year, from the probability point of view, astronauts have more and more opportunities to go to space, and more and more astronauts will return to the Chinese space station to carry out flight missions. As our manned space missions become a regular thing, many netizens have begun to pay attention to a topic, that is, when will foreign astronauts enter the Chinese space station to carry out flight missions.
It is only a matter of time before foreign astronauts enter the Chinese space station to carry out missions. Because our space industry is open to the whole world, including the space station project. A number of international cooperation projects are already being carried out on our space station.
Before the first module of China's space station was launched, we announced that nine projects from 17 countries stood out as the first batch of projects selected for China's space station science experiments. The projects come from 23 institutions in 17 countries, including China, Japan, Russia, India, and others.
At that time, many netizens saw this news, and it can be said that there were many discussions. In fact, only the scientific projects of 17 countries have been selected for the scientific projects of our space station, and these scientific projects are carried out in our space station, and at present, our astronauts will complete relevant scientific experiments and experiments, not that astronauts from 17 countries will enter our space station to carry out flight missions.
In October 2023, when the Shenzhou-17 spacecraft set sail, we officially extended an invitation to astronauts from all over the world to participate in the mission of our space station. Therefore, those who became the first batch of selected projects for scientific experiments on China's space station and astronauts entering China's space station to carry out missions are actually two different things.