China's first astronaut went to heaven again. On September 27th, 2008 16: 45, Zhai Zhigang opened the door of Shenzhou VII and began to leave the cabin, becoming the first man to walk in space of China, making China the third country in the world to independently master the technology of extravehicular activity. In fact, as early as 1965, the first astronaut walked in space. At that time, leonov from the Soviet Union stayed in the sky for only 12 minutes and then returned to the cockpit.
At that time, China had put this goal on the agenda of its space program. However, in those years, China's space technology was relatively backward. It was not until 2003 that Yang Liwei went into space for the first time on the Shenzhou 5 spacecraft that China began the extravehicular plan. In the Shenzhou VII mission in 2008, Zhai Zhigang successfully served as the commander of the spacecraft through layer-by-layer selection. On September 27th, 2008, Zhai Zhigang, wearing Tian Fei's extravehicular activity suit, completed the mission of China's extravehicular activity for the first time, becoming the third country with extravehicular activity technology after the United States and Russia.
Brief introduction of Zhai Zhigang:
From a small village in Longjiang County, Qiqihar City, Heilongjiang Province, it is very difficult to live in a small family. Father is ill in bed all the year round, and the whole family depends on mother for their livelihood. Although the conditions at home are not good, my mother is unambiguous about the schooling of her six younger brothers and sisters Zhai Zhigang. It is not easy for a mother to support her family by selling melon seeds.
Zhai Zhigang understands his mother's difficulties very well. Every time after school, he will help her sell melon seeds. But it is such a family. In that poor era, her mother sent all six children to school until she graduated from high school. When Zhai Zhigang was in junior high school, he had a dream of being a pilot. He studied hard until the Air Force 1985 recruited him. Zhai Zhigang secretly signed up and told his family before he left.
Zhai Zhigang 1989 graduated from the Third Flight Academy of the Air Force, flying safely for 950 hours, and was rated as the first-class pilot of the Air Force. 1996 When China recruited the first batch of preparatory astronauts, Zhai Zhigang did not hesitate to sign up and stood out through layers of selection. 1June 5, 998, successfully became the first batch of astronauts in China.
When astronauts are preparing for the mission, one of the training items is weightless tank training. Astronauts need to wear a training suit of nearly 160 kg to simulate underwater weightlessness. This kind of training is physically exhausting and extremely difficult.