Zhai Zhigang

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Zhai Zhigang
Zhai Zhigang
Country: China People's RepublicPeople's Republic of China People's Republic of China
Organization: Space Corps of the People's Liberation Army
selected on January 1998
Calls: 1 space flight
Begin: September 25, 2008
Landing: September 28, 2008
Time in space: 2d 20h 27min
EVA inserts: 1
EVA total duration: 14 min
Space flights

Zhai Zhigang ( Chinese  翟志剛  /  翟志刚 , Pinyin Zhái Zhìgāng ; born October 10, 1966 in Longjiang , Heilongjiang Province ) is a Chinese fighter pilot and a member of the Space Corps of the People's Liberation Army . He carried out the first Chinese space exit in 2008 .

Youth and service in the Air Force

Zhai Zhigang was the large village Longjiang of the district on October 10, 1966 as the youngest child of a peasant family in the village of Longxi (龙西村) Longjiang of the prefecture-level city Qiqihar born in northeast China. He has three sisters and two brothers. In 1984, while still in high school, he joined the Chinese Communist Youth Association . In June 1985 he joined the People's Liberation Army and began training at the Chinese Air Force Aviation Academy in Changchun (中国人民解放军 空军 长春 飞行 学院) together with his future astronaut colleague Liu Boming , who had also joined the army in June 1985 . Zhai Zhigang and Liu Boming graduated from the 3rd pilot academy of the Chinese Air Force in Jinzhou in May 1989 , after which the two were initially deployed as fighter pilots at an air force base in what was then Yangcun (杨村镇) in the Wuqing district of Tianjin - four of the 14 space pilots of the first year of the Space Corps had served on this base - where Zhai Zhigang flew the Chengdu J-7 and Shenyang J-8 fighters .

In September 1991, Zhai Zhigang joined the Chinese Communist Party . From May 1995 he worked as a pilot trainer in Hebei. Shortly after he was transferred to the local air force base, he was returning from a training flight when a violent dust storm began. The air traffic control center asked all pilots in the air to land immediately. At this point, however, the runway was no longer visible. Despite the wind, Zhai managed to land the machine safely on the base hidden between mountains by means of instrument flight , for which he was awarded the 3rd degree of merit of the People's Liberation Army (中国人民解放军 三等功 奖章). As a pilot, Zhai Zhigang has a little over 1,000 accident-free flight hours, for which he was awarded the Level I Military Aircraft Pilot . 1000 accident-free flight hours are the minimum for this award; after it is awarded, the pilot must show an additional 150 flight hours each year to keep it. His final rank in the Air Force was a lieutenant colonel.

Service in the space corps

In the early summer of 1996, Zhai Zhigang received notification that he was being considered for the People's Republic of China's manned space program . This initial selection was based on the files; a good 800 fighter pilots had received such a notification. After a medical examination at the barracks, Zhai was one of the 60 candidates who had to go to Beijing for intensive tests. On January 5, 1998, Zhai Zhigang was finally one of the 14 remaining pilots who were sworn in as astronauts in the newly created spacecraft corps of the People's Liberation Army . Zhai had come a long way in the Air Force. At the beginning he found it difficult to go back to school at the age of 31 and study dry theory. In his own words: “Like a high school student preparing for his Abitur.” But after the first two tough years he had got used to the training company.

On September 20, 2003, all 14 space travelers went to the Jiuquan Cosmodrome to practice in the real spacecraft - Shenzhou 5 - intended for China's first manned mission . Based on the achievements shown here, three spacemen were selected as candidates for the flight at the beginning of October:

On October 14th, Yang Liwei was finally announced as the first choice, Zhai Zhigang was the substitute, and in the event that Zhai suddenly became ill, Nie Haisheng was nominated as the second substitute. However, no one got sick, and on October 15, 2003 at 01:00 UTC, Yang Li Wei took off on schedule for the first manned Chinese space flight.

On the next mission, Shenzhou 6 , two space travelers should take off into space. For this purpose, five teams of two were selected from the space corps, who always trained together for the flight. In June 2005 this selection was reduced to three teams:

It was only announced the day before the start on October 12, 2005 that Fei Junlong and Nie Haisheng had been selected as the primary team for the mission, with Jing Haipeng and Liu Boming as the reserve team. Wu Jie was one of the two trainers of the space corps who were selected in January 1996 only on the basis of files and, after an eight-month language course, were sent to Moscow in November 1996 to study Russian cosmonaut training. Despite his good training performance, he had little chance of real space flight from the start. Since the well-rehearsed teams were always selected as a whole, Zhai Zhigang's chances of participating in this mission were rather slim.

The next mission, Shenzhou 7 , was to be used for a spacecraft mission . Therefore, the teams were put together relatively early - at the beginning of 2008, the fitting of the newly developed, 120-kilogram Feitian space suit took place. Zhai Zhigang, who was destined for an external mission, fitted the tailor-made 30 million yuan suit straight away. In June 2008, Jing Haipeng, Liu Boming, and Zhai Zhigang group were selected as the primary team, and it was announced in mid-September 2008 that Zhai Zhigang would lead the mission. On September 25, 2008, he and his colleagues Liu Boming and Jing Haipeng took off into orbit. Two days later, he completed the first space exit in the history of Chinese space travel, 343 km above the earth . Zhai Zhigang left the spacecraft on September 27 at around 10:45 a.m. CEST for a little over 14 minutes, secured with two ropes, while Liu Boming, wearing a Russian Orlan spacesuit , assisted him from the hatch.

Zhai Zhigang has been married to Zhang Shujing (张淑静) since 1994, who works at the Chinese Astronaut Training Center in the Specialized Laboratory for Space Nutrition and Space Nutrition (航天 营养 与 食品 工程 重点 实验室); their son Zhai Tianxiong (翟天雄) was born in the same year. Among his hobbies Zhai Zhigang calligraphy and ballroom dancing . In his free time he enjoys playing video games with his son.

See also

Web links

Commons : Zhai Zhigang  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d 翟志刚 景 海鹏 同 获 晋衔 中国 少将 航天 员 增至 5 位. In: guancha.cn. February 15, 2014, accessed July 11, 2020 (Chinese).
  2. ↑ 刘伯明 与 妻子 一见钟情 高中 时 见 女孩 就 脸红. In: chinadaily.com.cn. September 22, 2008, accessed July 10, 2020 (Chinese).
  3. ↑ a b c d 翟志刚. In: aihangtian.com. February 19, 2015, accessed July 9, 2020 (Chinese).
  4. ↑ 航天 英雄 翟志刚 刘伯明 天津 杨村 起飞. In: news.ifeng.com. September 22, 2008, accessed July 9, 2020 (Chinese).
  5. ↑ 胡锦涛 : 中国人民解放军 纪律 条令. In: chinanews.com. June 8, 2010, accessed May 7, 2020 (Chinese).
  6. ↑ 刘秋丽: 杨利伟 自述 ： 漫长 的 26 秒 后 ， 如同 一次 重生. In: 81.cn. January 21, 2018, accessed July 10, 2020 (Chinese).
  7. ↑ 琼楼 登高 人为 峰: 一个 26 岁 的 空军 飞行员 军衔 可能 是 少校 吗 可能 是 一级 飞行员 吗. In: zhidao.baidu.com. August 25, 2018, accessed July 10, 2020 (Chinese).
  8. ↑ Mark Wade: Yang Liwei in the Encyclopedia Astronautica , accessed on July 11, 2020 (English).
  9. ↑ Mark Wade: Zhai Zhigang in the Encyclopedia Astronautica , accessed on July 11, 2020 (English).
  10. ↑ Astronauts In Training For Second Manned Spaceflight. In: spacedaily.com. March 7, 2005, accessed July 11, 2020 .
  11. ↑ Space Daily: China's Shenzhou Safely Places Two Astronauts In Orbit. October 12, 2005, accessed July 11, 2020 .
  12. ↑ 左 永亮 、 沈 羡 云: 记 中国 退役 航天 员 吴杰 ： 飞天 有 梦 壮志 无悔. In: xinhuanet.com. April 10, 2019, accessed July 11, 2020 (Chinese). The signed photo shows the three final teams for the Shenzhou 6 mission; From left to right: Jing / Liu, Nie / Fei, Wu / Zhai.
  13. ↑ Mark Wade: Wu Jie in the Encyclopedia Astronautica , accessed on July 11, 2020 (English).
  14. ↑ The rumor that Zhai Zhigang was originally selected for the flight and was replaced by Fei Junlong at the last minute is based on a speculative report from Ta Kung Pao , which based its assumption on the spaceman selection for the Shanzhou 5 mission. In fact, if one of the members of both the primary and reserve teams were absent, Zhai Zhigang would always have been deployed together with his experienced partner Wu Jie.
  15. ↑ 孙彦 新 、 白 瑞雪: 中国 第 一套 舱外 航天 服 诞生 记. In: chinanews.com. September 26, 2008, accessed July 11, 2020 (Chinese).
  16. ↑ China Daily: China ready for third manned spaceflight. Retrieved September 22, 2008 .
  17. ↑ 张淑静 et al .: 特殊 医学 用途 配方 食品 及其 应用 研究. In: cqvip.com. Retrieved July 10, 2020 (Chinese).
  18. ↑ 张淑静 et al .: 一种 航天 用 食品 垃圾处理 袋. In: patents.google.com. January 1, 2014, accessed July 10, 2020 (Chinese).
  19. ↑ “他们 在 天上 一天 ， 我们 像 过 了 十年”. In: news.sina.com.cn. September 29, 2008, accessed July 10, 2020 (Chinese).
  20. ↑ 张媛: 翟志刚 妻子 研制 航天 食品 ： 丈夫 天上 吃 我 做 的 食品. In: news.cctv.com. September 28, 2008, accessed July 11, 2020 (Chinese).
Note: This article places the family name before the person's first name. This is the usual order in Chinese. Zhai is the family name here, Zhigang is the first name.
personal data
SURNAME Zhai Zhigang
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Chinese Taikonaut candidate
DATE OF BIRTH October 10, 1966
PLACE OF BIRTH Longjiang , Heilongjiang Province