According to the China Manned Space Engineering Office, the list of astronauts was determined, and three astronauts, Ye Guangfu, Li Cong, and Li Guangsu, were selected to carry out the Shenzhou 18 mission. Among them, Ye Guangfu served as the commander of this mission, and the other two served as team members.
Although the commander Ye Guangfu is the second batch of astronauts in the mainland, in October 2021, he worked with Zhai Zhigang and Wang Yaping to carry out the Shenzhou 13 mission.
In terms of the personnel of the Shenzhou 18 mission this time, there is another characteristic, that is, the crew is all post-80s, if the first batch of astronauts in the mainland is mainly post-60s, and the second batch is mainly post-70s, then the third batch is mainly post-80s.
This move also means that the first batch of veteran astronauts have completed their historical mission, gradually withdrawn from the front line of the aerospace industry, and gradually retreated into the background to train more aerospace talents for the mainland.
Judging from the process of the entire mission this time, there are also some differences from the past, that is, after Shenzhou 18 completed all the joint training and inspection, Shenzhou 19 was also ready and entered the state of "standby rescue".
Why let Shenzhou 19 be on standby for rescue?
Many people have some weird feelings when they hear "on-call rescue". In fact, it is not necessary, because there is only one purpose of doing this, that is, for the safety of astronauts.
This is because the aerospace field is a high-risk industry, and there will be many uncontrollable factors during the mission, and any small flaw can lead to the failure of the entire mission.
For example, in 1986, the space shuttle Challenger disintegrated in the air 73 seconds after launch due to a sealing ring problem, killing all seven astronauts, causing the largest safety accident in the history of astronautics.
So, in the field of aerospace, it is impossible to be too careful. It is also based on this reason that NASA of the United States later opened a double insurance system, one is launched, and the other is on standby for rescue.
It is also based on safety considerations, so the mainland has opened the mode of Shenzhou 19 standby rescue, once it encounters an emergency during the mission, then Shenzhou 19 will be launched immediately to bring it back to Earth safely, the purpose of this is to be prepared.
In fact, as long as there are astronauts living in space, then on the ground, there will be a rocket and spacecraft on standby, and there is also an emergency rescue team on the ground, which is always on the highest alert.
Once there is a situation on the space station, for example: SpaceX's Starlink has maliciously approached the Chinese space station, and finally the power system of the space station is activated, and the emergency avoidance is to save the day.
If it hadn't been discovered early and dodged in the past, in the event of a collision, then the emergency team on the ground could have immediately flown into space and take the three astronauts from the space station home.
Although there have been preparations in the past, this is the biggest difference between Shenzhou 19 and Shenzhou 18 at the same time, and after Shenzhou 18 is launched, Shenzhou 19 can be made up immediately, so as to achieve seamless connection.
This also means that the astronauts of Shenzhou 18 and Shenzhou 19 have been selected at the same time, so you might as well guess who the members are and whether there will be female astronauts?
Where have all the old astronauts gone?
In fact, since the last Shenzhou-17 mission, the first batch of astronauts on the mainland has gradually retreated into the background, and the second batch of astronauts has begun to take over the baton handed over by the old astronauts.
Although the first batch of veteran astronauts gradually retreated into the background, the entire Chinese aerospace industry can be carried by their group of 14 people.
It has been almost 30 years since the selection of China's first astronauts began in 1995. At that time, they should be the hardest-working, and at the same time, the most hesitant group of people.
At that time, China's level of science and technology was not the same as today's, and even if it was selected to join the aerospace team, it was not known whether it would be able to fly to space in this life.
Other countries train astronauts and can also go to the International Space Station. Because the United States excludes China in the space field, Chinese astronauts have no choice but to fly their own country's spacecraft to space.
To take the critical step from 0 to 1, it was very difficult for both the aerospace researchers and the astronauts at that time. Fortunately, they all came over in the end. In 2003, Shenzhou 5 carried Yang Liwei into space, and we broke through this historic moment.
But in this process, there was also some price, Yang Liwei once encountered a fatal resonance in the ascending stage, and his internal organs seemed to be shattered, which also caused Yang Liwei to retreat behind the scenes after returning from space, and never went to space again. Fortunately, Yang Liwei brought back key data, and after improvement, it provided safety for the astronauts behind.
There was also the first spacewalk, due to the lack of key data, the pressure difference between the inside and outside of the hatch was too large to open, and when I was anxious, the spacecraft had a fire alarm.
At this critical moment, after Zhai Zhigang, Liu Boming and Jing Haipeng discussed, they immediately decided that even if they died, they would complete the spacewalk, live up to the hundreds of millions of viewers who were looking forward to it in front of the TV, and they did not want to lose their image as a great power at this critical moment.
In the end, he used a crowbar to pry open the hatch and get out of the cabin smoothly, only to find out later that the fire alarm of the spacecraft was a false alarm.
It is precisely in the first generation of astronauts, a little bit of groping in the dark, that China's aerospace industry can make progress a little bit, but unfortunately, the first batch of astronauts, because of the lack of resources at that time, some of them trained for decades, but they failed to go to space and retired, they are: Li Qinglong, Wu Jie, Zhao Chuandong, Pan Zhanchun.
Epilogue:
As the second batch of astronauts all matured, and the third batch of astronauts gradually came to the forefront, the first batch of astronauts began to slowly retreat into the background, and the opportunities to appear in front of the public may become less and less, and the curtain will eventually come to an end.
But we must not forget their contributions to China's space industry, without them groping in the dark, there would be no take-off of China's space industry today, they should be remembered, including the four astronauts who did not go to space, but worked hard to train for more than 10 years.
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