Foreign and Military Affairs

New astronauts recruited for China's space program

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-05-07 23:14

BEIJING - China has recently recruited five male and two female astronauts, according to the General Armament Department of Chinese People's Liberation Army on Friday.

The new recruits are all duty pilots, married, with bachelor degrees. The eldest is 35 and youngest 30, according to a meeting of the General Armament Department at Beijing Aerospace City.

The male candidates were previously fighter pilots and the women were transport plane pilots. Their average flight time is 1,270.7 hours, the spokesman said.

They all have excellent skills with good psychological qualities and are qualified both in clinical and space medicine. Most of them participated in the quake relief work after the Sichuan earthquake on May 12, 2008, the spokesman added.

The training courses will start soon, which will help them quickly go from being pilots to astronauts, the spokesman said.

China began to select astronauts for its space program in 1998. In 2003, China sent its first astronaut Yang Liwei into outer space in the Chinese made spacecraft Shenzhou-5.