In 2003. China sent its first astronaut, Yang Liwei, into space. Since then, 13 Chinese astronauts have "reached for the stars". Zhai Zhigang, Wang Yaping and Ye Guangfu are three them. They carried out lots of important missions. Have you ever dreamed of becoming an astronaut like them? How did they get there?
To be an astronaut, you need to be very healthy. Good eyesight, a strong heart and lungs are important. You'd better not have other small problems. For example, a decayed tooth (蛀牙) could get worse in space and bring trouble to astronauts, as Pang Zhihso, a space scientist, told the Beijing Morning Post.
You also need to become stronger with hard training. You must fly more than 600 hours without accidents. Besides. you need to build your muscles as strong as athletes by running and swimming. You will also wear a 200-kilogram suit and do tasks underwater for six or seven hours without eating or going to the toilet. This is like doing tasks during a spacewalk.
Knowledge is important as well. Astronauts take 60 courses to get ready for a mission, including math, English, spacecraft design, physics and many more. So they will know what to do when emergencies (突发事件) happen during the mission (任务).
