HK nominates 40 taikonaut candidates, creating sense of participation among youth: lawmaker

香港提名40名航天员候选人，在年轻人中创造参与感:立法委员

Shenzhou-13 taikonaut Ye Guangfu exits China's orbiting space station core module Tianhe on an extravehicular activity (EVA), the China Manned Space Agency said on December 26, 2021. Ye and fellow crew member Zhai Zhigang were conducting the second spacewalk of the Shenzhou-13 mission. Photo: Xinhua

12月26日，中国载人航天局宣布，神舟十三号航天员叶光福在舱外活动(EVA)中离开中国轨道空间站天河核心舱。叶诚和他的同事翟志刚进行了神舟十三号任务的第二次太空行走。照片:新华社

China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) has concluded its first round selections for payload specialists for the national manned space program and nominated 40 qualified candidates that could potentially be part of the fourth class of taikonauts, Secretary of HKSAR Innovation, Technology and Industry Bureau Sun Dong revealed recently.

香港特别行政区创新科技工业局局长孙东近日透露，中国香港特别行政区已经完成了国家载人航天计划载荷专家的第一轮选拔，并提名了40名合格的候选人，这些候选人可能成为第四批航天员的一部分。

According to Sun, a total of 120 people applied for the posts and 40 people - 20 men and 20 women - passed the first round of selection.

据孙东介绍，共有120人申请这些职位，其中40人——20名男性和20名女性——通过了第一轮选拔。

This new development came shortly after the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) launched the recruitment process for the fourth batch of taikonauts in September 2022. Under the process, 12 to 14 candidates will be selected, including seven or eight space pilots and around six flight engineers and payload specialists.

这一新进展是在2022年9月中国载人航天局(CMSA)启动第四批航天员招募程序后不久出现的。在此过程中，将选出12至14名候选人，其中包括7至8名太空飞行员，大约6名飞行工程师和有效载荷专家。。

It marked the first time that China recruited taikonaut candidates from HKSAR. Global Times learned from the CMSA previously that three rounds of selections would be carried out before the candidates are eventually recruited into the program.

这是中国首次从香港特区招收航天员。《环球时报》此前从CMSA了解到，在候选人最终被录取之前，将进行三轮选拔。

The taikonaut selection process in Hong Kong was held strictly in accordance with national standards, according to Sun. Apart from physical performance, educational background and skills proficiency, applicants' enthusiasm for the aerospace industry was also taken into consideration, he told the media.

据孙东介绍，香港的航天员选拔过程严格按照国家标准进行。他在接受媒体采访时表示，除了身体表现、教育背景和技能熟练程度，应聘者对航空航天行业的热情也是考虑因素之一。

Sun said he had met all the 40 candidates and was impressed by their performances. Next, the HKSAR government will coordinate with the country's authorities to launch the next round.

孙东说，他已经见过所有40名候选人，他们的表现给他留下了深刻的印象。接下来，香港特别行政区政府将与国家当局协调，启动下一轮。

Payload specialists, one of the categories of astronauts classified by types of mission, are professional scientific researchers who will carry out scientific and applied research in space stations. During these missions, payload specialists are mainly responsible for conducting aerospace experiments or researches, operating space laboratory equipment and managing daily operations of space stations with other astronauts.

有效载荷专家是按任务类型划分的宇航员类别之一，是专业的科学研究人员，他们将在空间站进行科学和应用研究。在这些任务中，载荷专家主要负责进行航天实验或研究，操作空间实验室设备，并与其他宇航员一起管理空间站的日常操作。

Tang Fei, a member of the HKSAR Legislative Council, told the Global Times on Monday that the taikonaut selection would create a sense of participation among the Hong Kong youth, as it would mean that instead of just audience members of the country's aerospace endeavors, they could now be actual participants in the great cause.

香港特别行政区立法会议员唐飞周一在接受《环球时报》采访时表示，航天员选拔将在香港年轻人中创造一种参与感，因为这意味着他们不再只是国家航天事业的观众，而是真正参与到这项伟大事业中来。

It would also foster a great sense of pride and identification among young students, he said.

他说，这也将培养年轻学生的自豪感和认同感。

Taikonauts selection would also boost the quality of the city's scientific education and encourage more young students to devote themselves to innovation and scientific research, and choose it as a career, Tang noted.

唐指出，选拔宇航员还将提高该市科学教育的质量，鼓励更多的年轻学生投身于创新和科学研究，并将其作为职业。

China has made great strides in the aerospace sector in 2022, with many space industry observers hailing it as a year of great advances.

2022年，中国在航空航天领域取得了长足的进步，许多航天行业观察家称赞这是取得巨大进步的一年。

China's Long March rocket family, developed by the country's state-owned space giant China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, has conducted a record-breaking 54 orbital launches, all of which have been successful.

由中国国有航天巨头中国航天科技集团公司开发的中国长征火箭家族已经进行了创纪录的54次轨道发射，所有发射都取得了成功。

This year, construction of the China Space Station went into full gear and successfully completed all designated tasks for this phase with six missions - two manned missions, two cargo flights, and two extra-large module deliveries - all fired into space by Long March vehicles.

今年以来，中国空间站建设全面启动，圆满完成本阶段任务，长征运载火箭先后完成2次载人飞行、2次货运飞行、2次特大型运载舱发射等6次任务。

The Wentian and Mengtian lab modules weigh more than 20 tons each, and the Tianzhou cargo spacecraft also weighs more than 13 tons. In total, the six launch missions have sent more than 90 tons of payload to the space station.

“闻天号”和“梦天号”实验舱重量各超过20吨，“天舟号”货运飞船重量也超过13吨。这六次发射任务总共向空间站运送了90多吨有效载荷。

China also completed the building of its three-module China Space Station by the end of 2022 according to plan, and with the successful direct work handover between the Shenzhou-14 and Shenzhou-15 crew, China's first permanent space station has entered a new phase in which the orbital spacecraft will always be attended by a taikonaut crew in orbit.

中国还按计划在2022年底前完成了三舱中国空间站的建设，神舟14号和神舟15号机组人员成功直接工作交接，中国第一个永久空间站进入了轨道航天器永远由宇航员在轨工作的新阶段。

Four out of the total nine of the first batch of international experiments are also expected to be sent to the China Space Station in 2023, according to the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) Acting Director Niklas Hedman said in a recent interview, who also lauded the space station as "truly international" and one that offers an "absolutely fantastic opportunity for researchers around the world."

联合国外层空间事务办公室(UNOOSA)代理主任尼克拉斯·海德曼在最近的一次采访中表示，第一批国际实验的9个中有4个也预计将于2023年被送往中国空间站，他还称赞空间站是“真正的国际化”，为“世界各地的研究人员提供了一个绝佳的机会”。

The CMSA and the UN Committee on Peaceful Use of Outer Space (COPUOS) announced in June 2019 that these nine international projects in aerospace medicine, life sciences and biotechnology, microgravity physics and combustion science, astronomy and other emerging technologies are from 17 countries and 23 research bodies, including Polar-2, a Gamma-ray burst polarimetry project jointly proposed by Switzerland, Poland, Germany and China, and a spectroscopic investigation of nebular gas by India and Russia.

CMSA与联合国和平利用外层空间委员会(COPUOS)于2019年6月宣布，这9个国际项目涉及航空航天医学、生命科学与生物技术、微重力物理与燃烧科学、天文学和其他新兴技术，来自17个国家和23个研究机构，包括瑞士、波兰、德国和中国联合提出的伽马射线暴偏振测量项目“极地-2”，印度和俄罗斯对星云气体的光谱研究。

Chinese space observers said that the country's genuine openness in sharing the use of its mega space infrastructure greatly contrasts with and offsets the current turbulence around the world, which is the result of certain countries playing political games and forcing countries to take sides in bloc confrontation, even in space.

中国太空观察人士表示，中国在分享其巨型太空基础设施使用方面的真正开放，与目前世界上的动荡形成了极大的对比和抵消，这种动荡是某些国家玩政治游戏的结果，迫使其他国家在集团对抗中站队，甚至在太空领域。