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Women now in training for future spaceflights
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-10-17 09:26 Women taikonauts, or
astronauts, are being trained for space missions, and China also can train
foreign astronauts in a space program with Chinese characteristics.
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Astronaut Nie Haisheng (R) talks to
journalists after he and Fei Junlong got out of the return module of
the Shenzhou VI spacecaft at the main landing field in Central Inner
Mongolia Autonomous Region Monday morning October 17, 2005. The module
landed 4:33 A.M. after a five-day flight.
[Xinhua]
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China has begun to work on
standards to select women taikonauts, said an official with the China Space
Center.
Chen Shanguang, director of the China Astronaut Research and Training Center,
said scientists are studying the impact of space flight on women. Although only
men have traveled in space, China is studying comparative physiology and
learning from the experience of US women astronauts.
China will conduct many experiments to determine the exact differences
between men and women in space.
As women taikonauts have different requirements about environment and life in
a spacecraft, Chinese researchers will have to make extensive studies. These
include developing new space suits and devices to collect women's excrement.
China's Air Force Aeronautics University welcomed 35 women pilot trainees for
the eighth time in July this year. Experts say the country's first group of
female fighter pilots may emerge from them and the first female Chinese
taikonaut may be selected from among them.
"My dream is to become China's first female fighter pilot and first female
taikonaut," said Tao Jiali, a student from southwest China's Sichuan Province.
Meanwhile, a senior space official said China now has the technology to train
foreign astronauts.
Wu Chuansheng said the China Space Center has added the goal of training
foreign astronauts to its development agenda.
The center now has the technology to train foreign astronauts, but more
training facilities are yet to be built and established, Wu added.
The flight of the Shenzhou VI has further demonstrated that China is the
third nation capable of independently training astronauts.
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