On Oct 16, 2021, the Shenzhou XIII spaceship rose into the sky. Three Chinese astronauts—Zhai Zhigang, Wang Yaping and Ye Guangfu—set off for the Tiangong Space station. Wang Yaping is the only woman among the three astronauts. On Dec 9, 2021, the three astronauts gave a science lecture 400 kilometres above Earth! They showed millions of students their life there and did some fun science experiments.
During their six-month stay, they will set up robotic arms and do medical experiments, among other tasks. Wang Yaping will become the first Chinese woman to take a spacewalk.
It's not an easy job to do all these things. Chinese astronauts get difficult training before going into space. All the Chinese astronauts are excellent pilots with hundreds of thousands of hours of flight time. They also receive hundreds of classes to prepare for space travel.
One of the toughest parts is the high—G training. It simulates（模拟） the environment when the spacecraft takes off. Sitting in a superfast spinning （旋转） machine, astronauts' face muscles （肌肉） change shape. They cry tears because of great pain. Blood can't flow to their brains properly, causing a lack of oxygen（氧气） and even blindness. Astronauts must operate the space craft under these conditions.
Another exhausting exercise, as Wang Yaping told People's Daily, is the underwatering training which lasts seven hours each time. It simulates weightless environment. She had to wear a 200-kilogram suit and do tasks in 10-meter-deep water without eating or going to toilet. After each training, Wang lost up to 2kg of body weight.
"We may have to repeat such training every single day for years or decades," said Wang. "But there is no 'give up'in our dictionary.
Wang Yaping went a long way before becoming such an excellent astronaut. She sets a good example for us.
